A rainy Fall morning…

From a high of 90* to cold,wet, rainy mornings- all in the space of a week, this Fall is behaving strangely, indeed! So glad I washed the floors while it was hot and dry a few days ago. Now it’s on to prepping dinner for the weekend (a Pot Roast, Indian Tacos, Lemon Chicken and lots of Mashed Potatoes! Oh, and a trial run of a new Stuffing recipe. Only it’s not going into a bird, so maybe it’s a Dressing recipe? Hmm…), making a Quilt Sandwich (it’s about time, I know), and lots of tinkering in the Christmas Workshop. I love this time of year, lots of new ideas flying around (some even landing on paper), tables strewn with half-finished  projects, slivers of paper, hanks of yarn, swatches of fabric and bottles of paint. Bliss!

It’s hard to believe it was so hot last weekend, sitting here today with the rain coming down right outside my window, the chilly air making the house cold and brisk. That sweet face up above greeted us to Julian last Saturday, just as he has a few times this year- very quiet and curious, such a pretty boy! The trees are turning from green to brilliant reds, oranges and yellows up in the mountains this month- so refreshing! And exhilarating really. Our house in the city is on a bit of a ridge, so no trees around us here, just windswept streets with the occasional bush. There’s no shelter from the heat, sun or rain here- very different from our last house, come to think of it. That was more of  Hobbity-hole, all surrounded by trees, huddled under the stairs on the first floor. This place feels more of an Aerie- a windswept nest of Eagle people perched high atop a vast mountain…hmmm, she’s quite poetic today, isn’t she?

So- cooking, baking, cleaning, crafting, sewing and maybe even some Gaming to do today. Busy, busy, busy. Where are my Faeries? No time for dawdling today boys, there’s work to do!

Doing the math

While working out the yardage calculations of my bag pattern I noticed something right away- the bag lining and inside pockets were taking up a lot of fabric- too much for the amount I had just bought to do them! I thought there would be enough to do 6 bags- maybe more, if I counted the fabric already in my stash. But no- I hadn’t counted on the bag lining fabric being such a large piece. It was then that I realized I hadn’t really looked at my pattern before, and I really had no idea the amount of fabric the pattern used. It will work out, because there is enough fabric in my stash to come up with the difference, as long as I don’t mind the pockets not being all matchy-matchy with the lining. But I wanted to figure out a way to make sewing bags more effortless, easier and less time consuming. I wanted to make a more streamlined process for myself.

I set the problem aside for my brain to work on while I went about some other “chores” around the house. Am I the only person who loves to rearrange cabinets? I found myself at 8 o’clock sorting through the medicine cabinet, tossing old shampoo bottles and setting up a first aid box, happy as a clam! Tasha had to come in to see what I was up too. She’s very bossy around bedtime- lights out Mama!

Unless it’s hot. Then this is all you get:

Too bad kitties don’t like cold showers!

Summer Time Happenings

Well, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Sorry about that. This summer has been hectic- to say the least. But it’s been a good hectic! Birthdays and Gaming and movies and crafting and reading and…oh, just everything! But most of all,

happy times! ( I know! It’s the first picture of me on this blogspace in 3 years! yikes…)

This week is the first yearly overhaul of the closets in our home. And it’s been great! Why didn’t I think of this before? The hubby has taken on the task of clearing out and reorganizing all the closets, cabinets and storage areas for the first time this summer.  He also carved out a new crafting nook for me in the bedroom, so now I have a place to work when we throw games in the evening. If I’d known how much use that dining table was going to get this year…ah well.

The kitchen is well and truly broken in- it has been a year after all! The Hubbs put the under-counter- cabinets to better use (they are really deep- perfect for storing all the holiday dishes) and I finally moved the appliances around after staring at all the cramped counters for months- it’s funny how I never think to just move whatever’s been bothering me! I put the one’s I use sporadically on top of the refrigerator, and moved the few things I do use all the time into better positions down on the counter tops and voila! Instant new kitchen!

On to the outside closet… It was a mess, all filled up with boxes and bins and my old/new bike parts, toolboxes, recyclables, a fan, the vacuum cleaner- well, it was a mess out there. Its’ also where my BIG bins of wood working supplies are, and I couldn't get to them safely. So after a good three hours of shifting and lots of kitty supervising…it’s a wonderful storage space again! All thanks to my husband, who spent his morning cleaning instead of taking his usual bike ride. He says it was just as much work actually, so he may do it weekly from now on…not!

Today it seems it’s time for the rest of the closets in the house to get their overhaul, and the main craft/dining/entertaining area to get some attention as well, so it would seem this really is the summer of the clean! I have some organizational posts planned for next week- sorry the posts are so few and far between this month. The “book” editing has taken up what little of my time the cleaning has not taken up this month, and the Faeries have finally taken a stand and tied me to a chair, taped a paintbrush in my hand and forced me to do some more work on the Lady Mages’ House. Hooray! Now if they can just wave their little wands and fix the camera!

Until then my friends…

Lavender fresh

About the time I was deep in the heart of dressmaking (did I really just say that? Am I a dressmaker now?) I had to make a new batch of laundry soap. Has anyone reading this made their own laundry soap yet? It’s fun, and I love how easy it is to whip up a batch any time I need to. Here’s how I do it:

First, I gather my ingredients- Dr. Bronner's vegetable oil based soap. I use two bars; plain old baking soda-I love Arm & Hammer so that’s what I use; washing soda, and now we’ve come to a crossing of the streams (name that movie!). Borax powder. I’ve used it for years, and never had a problem with it. I’ve made laundry soap with it, and my basic spray cleaner has it in it, and I’ve even knocked out flea infestations at a few of the places we’ve lived with it. But I’ve been doing my research and discovered a few unsettling facts about Borax powder.
Mainly, that it can kill a child if ingested. *This sentence has bothered me ever since I wrote it- Boric Acid is poisonous. Borax Powder might be. Do the research for yourself and make an informed decision if you want to use it or not in this recipe.
So, I don’t use Borax powder any more. Because we have a little kitty living here with us, trusting me to keep her safe, happy and healthy. I use a lot more soap and vinegar, with baking soda and water and lots of elbow grease, with the occasional spot of commercial laundry soap when I’m not too confident of how clean my stuff is getting. It’s not perfect, but it’s perfect for us.
So! Get out your grater and make some grated cheese! That’s how soft this soap is:

Two bars is a lot- I was just using one, but found since I used this mixture for laundry soap and household cleaners, it was going pretty fast, so I doubled the recipe. I started with the recipe I found at Soulemama and tweak it according to my needs. The place we’re at now has hard water, so I added a bit more baking soap to help soften it up a tad.

Then I take a giant wooden fork and crumble those shreds even more. This makes the soap dissolve faster. I don’t have the storage for a huge tub of liquid soap, plus I love the old fashioned look of a container of laundry “powder”, so I make the dry stuff. It lasts a long time, and is multi purpose. At this point you just dump all the ingredients together and mix it up really good. My recipe is:
2 bars finely grated castile soap
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
2.5 cups baking soda
I don’t add any essential oils because I find that the Dr. Bronners soaps are smelly enough for my family. See? Really easy. And it works! Clean, soft, non-icky-commercial-smelling clothes. My washer doesn’t get all mildewy any more, and since I use this mixture to clean with, my whole house smells lavender fresh (that’s the soap fragrance I use the most, although the rose and citrus scents are good, too!) I still need to evaluate a non-Borax mixture, so stay tuned for more pseudo-science updates in the future!

My Cleaning List

Um. . . my house is dirty.And I need to clean it. So I started making lists again- did I mention I love lists? And recipes. I love recipes, too. So now I have these:

Did you know you can make your own cleaning supplies? It is very easy to do. I’ve been making and using them for years, but ran out last fall and hadn’t taken the time to make up a new batch. I mainly use baking soda and vinegar, with just a few extra special things when I need a little more oomph in my potions. I use Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap for my sprayables and the solid bars in my laundry soap, and I  also use essential oils for their cleansing properties, and the way they make the house smell yummy. This month it is all Lavender, all the time- except for the laundry soap, which is rose scented. I also am testing a dishwashing machine “soap”, which so far is working just great, but I ‘m only three days into the trial, so we’ll see how I shakes out. 

Whenever I start a new project, be it sewing, cooking , or simples making, I always do lots of research before I even start to gather my materials. My research starts with a Google search, then lots of reading: blogs, wiki’s,company websites, forums and also the comments sections of blogs- that’s where you find the most important information, the testers’ results! I compare and contrast reports, tips, recipes, and comments on other blogger’s sites, then start checking books out from the library. My favorite resources are Annie Berthold-Bond’s Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living and  Organic Body Care Recipes: 175 Homemade Herbal Formulas for Glowing Skin & a Vibrant Self by Stephanie L. Tourles. My favorite websites for homemade recipes are SouleMama and angry chicken, and a new on I recently found, asonomagarden. I do a lot of testing and tweaking to make things that work for me and my family, and on the whole we are very pleased with the things we use.

The benefits to using homemade cleaning products (can I call them products if they weren’t made in a  lab? Hmm… supplies? Potions? Concoctions?) are threefold. They cost less to make- the initial outlay for a box of baking soda, washing soda, borax and a bottle of vinegar is less than the price of most laundry detergents I have found, but the Dr. Bronners soaps will cost you a bit. The cool thing is the liquid is a super concentrate, and will last me an entire year because most of my recipes only call for a teaspoon per potion! They also make it easier to breathe- they are healthier to use, won’t cause flaking or burns if they come into contact with your skin (unless you’re allergic to one of the ingredients! so be careful with them until you determine if you are folks) and the scents are soothing to the nerves and senses. No more holding my breathe until I can get out of the room after I’ve sprayed something! And lastly I have a great sense of peace of mind about using these cleaning supplies because I know exactly what’s in them. I clean more often because I like to use them, they work great, and I love the satisfaction of making something useful from basically nothing more exotic than baking soda and vinegar!

Of course, now I have to actually go use them, and whip this house into shape!