DIY rocks

It's snowing more.  shoot.  

not much, but just enough so you can tell who didn't shovel the LAST time it snowed this much.

me.

sigh.  

I helped Leon complete his Sans Plushie last night.  He was determined to get it done before the weekend and we sure did!  He did a lot of the work himself, but wanted me around to run the sewing machine and serger.  He's gotten really good at threading his own needle and last night I was trying to thread a needle and his eyes were up close. He laughed at me and said, "Whoa, that was WAY off!" as I made my attempts.

The confidence he instills in me... ;)

He's gotten the knack of using my needle threader contraption, which only works on about half of my hand needles.  So he's in charge of it now.

And I think that little sneaker took it to school with him!  I just went inside to take a pic of it and can find it NO where...

Oh well, I hope he brings it home in one piece.

I'm looking forward to the weekend!  Not because Leon will be at his mom's, but because  I don't have really anything else too much planned.  The bills can wait til Monday.

Things on my to do list for the weekend.

1) sew

2) clear off craft table

3) sew

4) shop a little

5) sew

6) cook something like personal pan pizzas for Sunday night.  Leon's request when he heard I was planning on making that for tonight.  "Grandma... can you make that on Sunday so I can have some too?" You bet!

7) sew

I made a 5 gallon bucket of laundry detergent a couple days ago and finally found time this morning to get 8 gallons of detergent portioned out.  It would have been 10 but I ran out of old detergent bottles and milk jugs.  You fill it half with the soap and half with water, thus 10 gallons total.

So the rest sits taunting the dogs until we finish off some milk or I find someone with spare bottles.

That should last a while!  I gave a gallon to Meri a few weeks ago when she ran out of the regular expensive stuff.  I had all the supplies on hand so this batch cost me nothing.  Ooh - except for the Fels Naptha soap I had Robb bring home last week. 98 cents.

Here's the recipe if you want it.

Homemade laundry detergent

1 Fels Naptha bar shaved or grated down to little bits.

put in pan with 4 cups of hot tap water and set temp to medium or low heat.

Stir occasionally until the little bits all melt in.  That could take maybe 10-15 minutes.

While that is happening, fill a 5 gallon bucket half way with HOT tap water.  

Add the following

1/2 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

Stir well.  

Once the Naptha bits are melted, pour it into the bucket and stir again.

Fill the bucket with more HOT tap water up to the top.  Well, within an inch or two.  You don't want this stuff to slop over.  

stir again.

Let it sit over night and cover it or you family or pets might try it out unsuccessfully.

Or accidentally drop something into it.

Stir it well the next day with a LONG handled utensil.  I use my husband's grilling spatula.  

It's great big!

It congeals a bit so chop/stir it well before funneling.

Then with a funnel, fill each detergent container half way with the detergent and shake well before filling up the rest of the way with tap water.

I still have a couple gallons that aren't empty yet and one that is store bought because my MIL prefers us to use that on her clothes. And that's fine.  But I'll be frugal for the rest of us!

I try to mark the jugs with a big X if it's homemade.

Can you tell my favorite go-to store is Aldi?

Shake jug before using each time.  It's supposedly really concentrated, but I use a full cap (about 6 ounces) for each load in my top loading washer.  Meri has a front loading washer and she uses about 1/2 cap.

One thing to get used to.  If you're expecting it to suds up a lot, it won't.  I've been told you can add some scents to it but I haven't.  

Well.  back to ye old grind.

Have a wonderful weekend and tell me all about it on Monday!