Bats Flapping At My Door

Greetings!

The witching hour is nye! Are you ready for little ghosts an goblins to ascend your stoop? I'm mostly ready, all I need is the candy, I don't like to have those delectable little goodies around the house too early or I end up indulging too much.

So! I made a new Halloween wreath for the front door this year, inspired by a combination of something I saw on Pinterest, and the urge to try one of those cool yarn wrapped wreathes. Only thing was that I didn't care to purchase a wreath form from the craft store, those babies are expensive. Instead I attempted, to no avail, to find a pool noodle, alas, I could not find one in mid-October. What to do, what to do? How about a trip to the Home Depot? Success... sort of. More on that later, let's focus on the cute for now!

A harvest moon, a dead tree in the night...

A very large, very sparkly bat!

A bit of hot glue, and shazam, Halloween wreath!

Ok, so there's a bit of a problem here... what I ended up using to form the wreath is pipe insulation. You know, that black, pool noodle looking stuff that you cut to fit and wrap around your hose bibs in winter? Well, the trouble is is that it's a bit flimsier than a pool noodle and after I had the whole form wrapped completely in my yarn, it started creasing at the top because it wasn't strong enough to keep it's circle shape, see how it's a little bit egg shaped at the top? Bummer.

Still, all in all, I'm mostly happy with this wreath, especially where the cost is concerned. I think the total was less than $7, not too shabby. I think eventually I will remake this wreath because I like the concept, but it's just not stable enough for my complete satisfaction. Ah well, you win some, you lose some and I think it's just as important that we show the things we make that aren't quite so perfect so that we can all learn what *not* to do, right?

Have any of you made a Halloween wreath? I'd love to see it if it's online somewhere, just point me to it in the comments.

oxo,

Lisa

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Oh please, you guys know I can't be wordless, I've always got something to say, but I'll make it quick because there's not much to it.

Hey look, I finally made one of those pretty soap dispensers out of a mason jar! I used one of the extra pretty 100th Anniversary Blue editions. FYI, $9.99 for 6 pint jars at Target!

Unbelievably easy, here's how!

1. Poke holes through the flat piece on the top of the jar.

2. Glue on pump from an existing soap dispenser.

3. Set on the patio table with some pretty flowers.

4. Take a picture, post immediately to Instagram.

Oh God, Instagram... I've had an account for a while, never used it, then my brother talked me into it with his cool pictures of Spirooli'd zucchini and gorgeous pictures of Lake Tahoe. Anyway, here's me, are you there too? Do tell, and point me to you!

oxo,

Lisa

Good Clean Fun

Hey guys!

Wild hairs. Sometimes it pays to go with them. This one hit me this week when I went to the store to get laundry soap and decided $14.99 was just too much, so I made my own!

Not long ago, my pal Tara posted about making her own laundry soap. I'd heard of people making their own soap, but figured it was complicated and/or time consuming, but I'd told my husband about it and we decided to give it a shot. The supplies for this project are pictured above, 1 box of Arm & Hammer WASHING Soda, $3.24 (not to be confused with baking soda), 1 box of Borax, also $3.24, and 1 bar of Zote, $1.09. Grand total: $7.57 (plus a little tax), and based on what I've read, this one batch will last us approximately 2 months, and if I'd made it all at once, a whole ONE YEAR! The recipe that I used can be found right here,  But since I love you so much, and I did make one small change, I'll write out how I made it as well. 

Powdered Laundry Soap

1 bar of Zote

2 Cups Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

2 Cups box Borax

Two bars of this Fels-Naptha soap is what the original recipe calls for, but I used Zote (pictured below)... because I like pink.  I'll use this Fels-Naptha for my next batch.

Fun Fact: If you hand your husband or significant other a little pinch of this soap, which has been run through the grader of a Cuisinart, and say "try this new cheese I picked up at Trader Joes" he will immediately put it in his mouth because he trusts you. That is a mean abuse of power. And also, funny. In my defense, I didn't think he would move that fast. Behold the power of cheese. 

Ok, so let's get to it! This is such a simple process, the whole thing only takes about 5 minutes. Like I mentioned above, the original recipe calls for 2 of the Fels-Naptha bars, but the bars are small (5.5oz.), this bar of Zote is 14.1oz., I know that's more soap than was called for, but meh...in for a penny, in for a pound. Seems ok.

In the picture above, the Zote (which I chopped into three chunks to fit into the top of the food processor)  has been run through the cheese grater of my Cuisinart.

And then the chopping blade. Kinda looks like Dippin Dots at this stage. 

I dumped the soap out on to a paper plate then added a little at a time with the other ingredients back into the food processor until it was all ground into a pretty fine powder. 

The powder ingredients really help pulverize those pieces of soap. 

Hey look, a batch of soap! It's really that simple. And here's the kicker, you use TWO TEASPOONS per load of laundry. Yes, 2 tsp.! Crazy right? I've tested this already with a large load of Sean's work clothes which can be pretty dirty, and they came out just as clean as they do with the All Free & Clear that we've used for years.

Pretty neat, aye? I'm curious to see how we like this over time, but as it stands, I'm pretty happy. Have any of you made your own soap? Do you do anything different? Do tell!

If you have any questions, I'll try to answer the best I can, and I'll answer in the comments this time around, so check back if you have a burning Q.

oxo,

Lisa