Full Steam Ahead

So, on Tuesday, I sewed in ALL my spare time.  I got all 12 masks done for my nephew and Robb delivered them yesterday.  I had enough elastic for 11.5 of them.  I figured that some people don't even LIKE elastic around their ears and would prefer a ribbon tying the masks around the back of the heads.  They can do that if they want...

with their own ribbon...

Then we picked up a pizza for supper in the car before Bible study.  NOT from Josh's pizza place as we're saving that gift card for a date and when I've eaten nothing else for the day so the calories can all go into the pizza... :)

Today is all about laundry and starting to dig around the corner of the back yard for the grape plants.

I also want to research getting a web site started for my dear (past) bloggy friend Sonya Ann and her book writing endeavors.  I'll post the site here when I get something up.

We'll see how much I get done today...

Happy Thursday!!!

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!

Grand Excitement

I made laundry detergent this morning and went to check my email while it was cooking on the stove.  After seeing a meme on FB that said this, 

I was reminded.  Whoops!!!   

It had boiled over and now after cleaning it up, my stove and the floor in front of it are sparkling...

I'm planning on going to lunch at the elementary school to sit with Leon today.  He has been begging me for weeks since the last visit.  So I'll go today.  I love that kid...  PLUS I'll make him eat the apple slices I put in his "snack" lunch today.

Christmas music started on a local channel today!!!!  Several years ago, Maddy discovered it while driving and almost drove off the road in her excitement.  It's only for the weekend and then will come back next weekend.  I, for two, am thrilled also.  Click here if you're not a Scrooge and we can listen together today!

Speaking of Maddy, she'll be home tomorrow!!!  Meri is going to be singing with the All State choir this weekend and Maddy is coming to help us support her.  

Will def have pics on Monday of the concert.

Back to work.  

Got a few miracles to pull out of my elbow before heading to lunch with the grand one.

Rambling on and a recipe

Well, I have nothing new from the State fair to report other than I haven't been there since Saturday. WHEW!  The first Iowa Public TV fair coverage started last night so I recorded it to see if anything we went to or participated in was covered.  Not yet.  There is another week of the productions to see though.  

Although, Ice cream nachos...  I'd try that...

On Sunday, I was feeling like I NEEDED to do something productive because I spent all day Saturday at the fair or visiting with relatives.  They left at the same time we left for church, so when I

got home, I got some stuff done!

I saw a hack online on how to use a shower tension rod under your kitchen sink to hang bottles on.  CHECK!  It is organized now!  

still looks disorganized, but at least I now know how much of what we do have. AND where the tools are without having to rip everything out when I need them.

See my creative use of an old dog leash??  That shelf IS put to good use once again.

and still no one knows where anything is.  What's new?

I also made 4 gallons of laundry detergent after realizing we were almost out and I found a bar of Fels Naptha under there.  GOOD!

While making the detergent, I realized that while I had Borax, I did NOT have Washing Soda, a key ingredient to homemade laundry detergent.  So I googled what a good substitute is.  

Apparently you need a chemistry major to figure this out, but if you take Baking soda and bake it for at least 30 minutes, it becomes Washing soda, aka Soda Ash, which is used to dye fabrics. 

Who knew??!  

Well, I guess SOMEONE knew!  So yeah, I did some baking on Sunday.

Recipe to make your own laundry detergent.

1) grate 2/3 of a Fels Naptha bar into a large pot with 3 quarts of water.  Bring to a boil and stir occasionally until the soap bar is dissolved.

2)  Add 1 cups Borax and 1 cup Washing Soda, boil for roughly 15 minutes.  Stirring on occasion. It will have a honey like consistency.

3) Add 1 more quart of hot water from faucet and mix well.

4) In a 5 gallon bucket, dump the mixture and add 3 gallons of cold water.  

5) Let sit overnight, but stir with a long spoon whenever you think of it.  Maybe once or twice.

Voila!  You've made your own, VERY inexpensive laundry detergent that will last for a long long time.  Keep it covered and close to your washer.  

1/2 cup is sufficient per batch.

I got some more boxes sorted in the garage and even picked out some fabric to make Meri a few new shirts for her Senior school year.  Got one cut out and she's not too keen...  She said, "I thought it was going to be exactly like my old shirt that you used for a pattern!"  

Do I need all her friends to think I'm a one trick pony?  No.  It will have adjustments made to look a smidge different.  COME ON!

Oh well.  If she won't wear it, I will.  

Plucked several tomatoes out of the garden when Leon got home.  YUM!  I'm trying to incorporate them into everything I eat these days, because there are a few people in the house who don't care for them.  Have you ever had tomatoes on oatmeal?  Me neither. 

I may have to draw the line somewhere.

On Sunday night, we got to Skype with Maddy.  Looking forward to seeing them soon!!

Gotta go.  Work beckons.  Have a great Tuesday!

Roaring over here

So the parts for my dryer came on Tuesday!!  I spent most of the evening on it to replace both pieces of the thermostat, because I believed that's what was wrong. After several minutes of swearing in German, thank goodness for Hogan's Heros!!, I managed to finally figure out how to take the little clasps off the little slidy doo hickeys.  So SIMPLE!!!  now....  

Got the pieces replaced  and I plugged it back in.  Threw someone's swim trunks in and turned that puppy on!  Still... no heat!

Ok, SOMETHING is wrong with this thing!  I just spent $60 on two parts that weren't the problem and here I was determined NOT to spend $150 for a $2 part!!  

I still was determined even though they cost more than $2.

Started looking around on the internet for my brand of dryer and it's symptoms.  Found a video that showed how to make your dryer hot again, simply by cleaning it out!  Okey doke!

That turned into a comedy of errors.

In pulling off the cover of the fan and lint trap tunnel, I managed to drop a screw and the end of my ratchet tool behind the fan inside the dryer.  I'm going to need those!!!  So I tilted the dryer one way, careful not to twist the gas line too much.  They both rattled to the side.  Something fell of the top onto the floor.  No big.

I tilted it backwards a little.  Something fell into the lint trap hole around the barrel.  g.reat...  It was my screwdriver.  I might need that too!  I definitely need it NOT in the area around the barrel!!!  Not sure what else fell in...   Don't care.  I fished out the screwdriver and cleaned off the entire top of the dryer.  I will be wiser this time!

I managed to fish out the screw and the ratchet piece with some needle nosed pliers and in the process, bent the lower flap thing that the back cover connects to, so now the back won't go on... whatever...

The video that I found showed how to check the outside air vent for any clogs.  So I went out in the dark with only Leon's dinosaur flash light that he got for his birthday.  Because WHO knows where their flash lights are?  and why don't any of them work when you need them?!  

It roars. constantly...

I reached into the vent and started pulling out layers of junk.  Oh yuck...  If THIS isn't the cause of the problems, then I don't KNOW what!  After I cleaned that out with a long wire brush, I plugged the sucker back in and turned it on with the swim trunks again.  

No heat.

and I found that I'd cut my hand somehow because there was blood encrusted on my hand and pants leg...  wonderful.

After cleaning up, I went back to the internet.  SOMEONE must know what is wrong with this thing and with a dryer, there aren't a whole lot of pieces that can go bad!!!  Found it.  Use www.partselect.com next time you want to fix something!!!  You put in the model # and it will give you a list of the symptoms that could go wrong with this model and next to each piece, you get a number.  That number will tell you how this piece fixed this issue 54% of the time, for example.  How cool is that!!  

So for another $10 + cheap shipping, the part came Thursday.  YEAH!!!  I put it in last night and instantly those swim trunks heated up!!  So all the clothes hanging in my living room got a warm tumble last night to loosen them up and today I'm getting caught up on all the clothes that no one wants to see hanging for the world to see.  

I have a lot...

I am WO-MAN!!!  Hear me ROAR! 

Frozen, not wet

My name is Val.  McVal.  and the thermostat on the clothes dryer is broken. 

Yay me!  I get to humidify our winter dry house by hanging up wet clothes all over.    I am sick of spending time and quarters up at the laundromat!

Meri is not thrilled...  She was taking her breakfast upstairs this morning and got ketchup on a towel she had to duck under.

Robb thinks we could get along without a dryer for quite a while.  I'm checking out the asylums nearby for him...

The parts are on order. 

In the meanwhile, I'm being creative with where I hang clothes. 

If you find some wet clothes hanging frozen in your car, don't come crying to me...  We're doing the freeze dry method for some!  ;P

Laundry Room Blues...

Our dryer broke on Friday.

* sigh *

On Saturday and Sunday afternoon, we spent significant time at the laundromat up town drying clothes and washing what we could there to get caught up before we ran out of quarters.

Since then, I refuse to dispense with any more quarters unless it's a baby emergency. So... I've developed a system, providing you don't need these particular articles of clothing for 2 days.

After the clothes are done in the washer, I put them in the dryer for one cycle. It turns but it's all on air fluff... No heat cycle whatsoever! This dryer stint is basically so the clothes won't drip whilst hanging over our computer desk...

When that's done, I hang them up on the various clothes lines I now have strung up around our house, including the one that reaches from the landing to a post upstairs, directly over the computer desk. I won't take a picture of that at all. It's not document worthy....

The living room ceiling fan is on constantly for whatever natural breeze I can muster from it. It takes approximately 10-15 hours per load. But if I can hang up four batches at once, it's a snap!

But you do need to duck slightly under some of the wet clothes angle hanging across the steps.

Then when they're dry, you pop them back in the dryer for about 10 minutes or so to soften them up just a little on air fluff... which of course is all it does...

As this dryer is 19+ years old by now and the last time we had the repair man out, he warned us that it was on it's last legs... (I think he was refusing to come out anymore for it...) we're ordering the new dryer tonight.
Check out my little helper this morning! He helped me move clothes from the washer to the non-working dryer while sucking his thumb! I know it's not a brilliant habit to get into, but it kept him happy for a little while while his mommy was indisposed.