Fabric Softener

Now that I use my own fabric softener, laundry soap, stain remover and dish washing detergent I have cut that part of my household budget in more than half!!! Thank goodness for Pinterest!

It cost me $2..35 to make this Fabric Softener and I will use it for 3-6 months!!!!! I usually use Gain and that costs me approx. $4.00 every month that's with a coupon!

I have not used this yet as my laundry day is Monday so I will let you know how it goes. I am for sure going to try it out on towels and not so nice things before I do so on my clothes! LOL  
UPDATE 7/2/12 I have used it now and the ONLY difference is the smell.  Gain and the other store fabric softeners the scent is on the dry clothes.  This homemade Fabric softener I can not smell anything on the clothes.   They don't smell bad they just don't smell at all.  I use fabric softener so my clothes are soft not really for the scent.  But if you use it for the scent you will not like this recipe. 

This is the mix:

1 bottle of Suave Condition (I used the Sweet Pea and Violet scent)

4 1/2 cups of white vinegar

9 cups of hot water

I used a BIG 164 oz Apple Juice container to mix and keep it in. It fit PERFECTLY in it! I guess you could use a big bucket too.

Mix together the whole bottle of conditioner and 9 cups of hot water. After you mix that real good add the 4 1/2 cups of vinegar to that. You use 2 TBSP of this mixture in your washer and Voila! You have fabric softener.   I just realized I spelled Softener wrong on the bottle I put it all in LOL!!!!! 

Home made dish washing detergent!!!

Found this recipe on pinterest!!! Super happy the first 3 washes and the dishes look great!

Try it out!

Home made dish washing detergent!!!

1 1/2 cup of Lemi Shine (found at wal-mart in the dish washing section)

1 1/2 cup of Washing Soda (already had since I make my own laundry soap too!)

1/2 cup of baking soda (already had since I make my own stain remover and cook with it!)

1/2 cup sea salt (already had too)

Mix all the ingredients together and use 2 Tablespoons per load.

I added vinegar to the jet dry compartment for a rinse aide!

Sick of the wasps!!!

My back yard is home to thousands of wasps!  My kids won't even go play in the back yard, it's so bad. 
Last summer I tried 3 or 4 different things to try to trap and get rid of them. 
The only trick that worked was this one!
I bought this baby pool for my Yadi but he HATES water.  LOL! 
So I fil it up about 2 to 3 inches deep and put a little dish washing soap in it.  Enough to make some bubbles. 
After the bubbles settle down the wasps go to land and take a drink but here is the kicker!  They can't get up!  The soap gets on their wings and the drowned.  Right now is the perfect time to do this since it's so hot and dry! They are really thirsty.  I caught over 30 wasps in the last 4 days! 
I just keep going out every morning and adding a little more water to my wasp swamp.  LOL





over bought Avon products

I over bought a few Avon products so I'm trying to sell them.  Here is what I have

A few Bug Guard items.
Bug Guard Plus Picaridin Pump Spray - regular $14.00 I'm asking $6.00
Bug Gaurd Plus Picaridin Towelettes pack of 8 - regular $14.00 I'm asking $6.00
Bug Guard Plus Anti Itch spray soothe bug bites! - regular $10.00 I'm asking $4.00
Cool N Fabulous disappearing color SPF 30 BUG GAURD AND SUN SCREEN in one!!! regular $14.00 I'm asking $6.00. Goes on blue and disappears.
Avon's Skin So Soft sun kissed line -
Mineral Gems Glamorous Gold Body Scrub 8.4oz - Use this before you you go in the sun OR use a self tanner (which they do have a gel I can order for you). Regular $8 ...I'm asking $5 I have 2 of these
Mineral Gems Glamorous GOld Shimmering Body Oil Spray 5oz - Use this after sun or self tanner Has shimmer flakes in it to make your skin glow - Regular $8 I'm asking $5 I have 4 of these.
I do not have the gel that goes with this line but I can order it for you. It is a self tanning gel 8.4oz for $6.00

Kristiana and her dance recital

My little Princess!!!! 



A few cool things!!!!

Here are some projects I finished the last 3 days.  All 3 I found on Pinterest of course!! 

Here was one of Tony's father's day gifts!  I took a black foam board and arranged pictures on it.  I used double tape to stick them to the board.  Then I used Mod Podge and painted that over the pictures as a sealer! 
I want to do this for our living room with just random pictures I don't have frames for.   Minus the I love dad part ;0)
This took about 1 hour to make and $15 to make!  (Would've been less but I bought the foam board at Hobby Lobby and I'm pretty sure I could've gotten it cheaper somewhere else.)

This was kinda scary because I felt like I was going to ruin it but I promise it dries clear.

This is a before picture of just a plain old cookie sheet I was actually going to throw out because it was very old and starting to rust just  little.  

This is the after picture!!!  I spray painted it and wrote all the letters to the alphabet on it with a paint pen.  Kristiana was so excited when she saw it.  I called it her letter game!  She has to match the magnetic letters to the painted letter.  I showed her how the letter stick to it and she just thought I was the coolest mom EVER!  LOL  This took about 1 hour (mostly drying time for the paint) and cost me NOTHING!  I had everything here already!!! ;0) LOVE IT!

Then I had the idea to put Antonio and her name on the other side to help them learn the letters in their names!!!   I think every daycare or teacher or anyone with a 2-5 year old should make this!!!! 

LOVE this project!!!  My 4th of July tulle wreath!   This was easy and fun to make!!  Took me about 45 min and approx $12 BUT I have enough tulle left over to make maybe 2 more.  If you want one comment and I can whip one up for you too for $6.00!  I might cut out some stars and stick them in there somewhere.  

low fat banana nut bread!!!! YUM!

I had 3 bananas that I needed to do something with besides throw away.  Kiddos won't eat brown bananas....  I searched the Internet and found a recipe.  I tweaked it a little and this is what I made up

3 or 4 ripe bananas
1 1/2 cup of unbleached flour (or you can use 3/4 cup wheat 3/4 cup white or all white)
1/2 cup sugar (half of what the real recipe called for)
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce (real recipe called for 2 tablespoons and then 2 tablespoons of butter since I want LOW fat I used NO BUTTER)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Mash up bananas then add all the ingredients.  This literally took me 10 min.    I filled up my loaf pan half way as well as 5 muffin cups with this mix, ran out of mix for the 6th.  Bake at 350 for 55 min.  I took the Muffin pan out after 30 min!!!! 

I have not tried this yet it is still baking BUT it smells AMAZING!  I will post a pic and let you know how the kids and I like it a little later!!!  ;0)
.........

OK I tried one of the ones out of the muffin pan.  It was very good!!!  Remember this is a LOW FAT recipe!!  It was not as sweet as the original recipe!  If you want you could add a little more sugar or sweetened applesauce but by doing that you are adding more calories.

I think it tastes good as is!  ;0)