It's a New Year...time to be frugal...let's start with the Laundry!

I have always liked doing the laundry, taking dirty clothes and transforming them into piles of clean, sweet smelling attire. However, the last few years have not yielded for me sucha a delight. Why? I don't know, because 12 loads or more a laundry a week is now more like 3 or 4 depending on the week. I have noticed over the last couple of years a significant increase in laundry soap. Now just for the record, I do laundry for one ultra sensitive guy...has to be liquid soap, no dryer sheets and if you use bleach...ummm must double rinse! Huge issues, huge! Therefore we have a brand we use and I haven't changed it in....going on twenty years. Apparently they have gotten that memo and have been sockin' it to me in rising costs. I started reading about homemade laundry soap...hmmm I thought do I dare. I dared, and we love it. Not only to our towels smell so much better, the clothes are actually softer. Remember we can't use dryer sheets, ever live in a dry climate with no dryer sheets, the static cling is HORRIBLE! But that has been reduced greatly and I am happy about that.
I used this site as a jump off place. She has some fabulous suggestions and at the bottom she does say you can add essential oil for fragrance. I didn't add anything and we are fine with how the clothes smell or don't smell in this case!

Here is what I did which is a modification to her recipe. We have extremely hard water, making your soap less efficient I guess. I upped the borax and soda and the bar of soap. I would like to try Ivory for baby and small ones laundry...just for fun!

1/2 bar Fels-naptha soap (I got mine at the grocery store, I have always loved this soap, it is a great spotter. When I had kids at home, I used to keep a bar in the cabinet above the washer for spotting those impossible stains, like grass and chocolate. This soap and a little elbow grease works miracles)
1 cup of borax
1 cup of washing soda(get this in the laundry aisle also)
Grate the bar of soap and put in a saucepan. Add 6 cups of water and heat until soap is dissolved. Add borax and soda and stir until dissolved. Pour 4 cups of hot water into a 2 gallon bucket. Add soap mixture and stir well. Add another gallon + 6 cups of water. Stir. Mixture will be a semi thick liquid. On the website the describe it as egg drop soup...this is accurate. Let sit 24 hours, the mixture will gel. It will be a liquid gel. I found I needed to stir periodically over the next 24 hours. The mixture got pretty firm on top. After the first day or so then I just mix it before use. I use 1/2 cup per load.

My mixture was cheap to make. I bought a box of washing soda, a box of borax and the bar of soap. I spent about $7. I have enough with one batch to do about 64 loads. I have enough ingredients to do one more batch, but will have to buy another bar of soap to do anymore. This works out to pennies a load. I still use bleach on my whites with this soap (I hear mom's voice), and I do double rinse (this if for my sensitive guy, but he hasn't had any issues).

With the new decade I have decided to be more frugal in my use of expendible commodities, I would rather spend our money on making memories with our family. Here is my first step to saving some bucks.

Let me know if you try it!
If you live by me and want to try some call and come by I would be more than happy to share a cup!

First Finish of the New Year and Sunflowers

Lots of years ago...25 to be exact(how did that happen?) We moved to a small community in Northern Utah. Our first home, our third child, fourth child and lots of memories...12 years of them were ours to be had there. We met so many wonderful and special people while there. People who have continued to be our friends, people who walked into our hearts and left great big footprints that we hope will never fade. One such family was the Merrills, he just happened to be our Doctor also...LOL! We would take small town medicine again in a heartbeat. Raelyn was a dear friend who taught me so many things, but one thing she taught me was the love of sunflowers! I can't see a sunflower without thinking about her. When I saw this blinkie, I had to have it here on my blog. From her I learned we should all be sunflowers and face the sun...or for her face the Son! I am thankful for Raelyn and all those who have graced my life and taught me so much.....
Now for the first finish of the New Year. This little quilt was in my head. Nothing special, but it will keep some little person warm.
The back is one of my favorite features of this quilt (I see a habit forming here). Love the maverick stars. Go here for instructions on how to make those.
Here is a close up of one of those cute little stars! How can you resist little maverick stars...trust me they will become addicting. And, why yes, I did use solid dark brown on the back and I really like it! This was a total stash quilt, gotta love that too!
And, of course, my most favorite picture of all, the folded quilt picture! LOVE IT! This quilt washed up so soft and crinkly. I hope it will make a special little one happy to have a blanket to love.

Word of the Year

DO

Last year my husband's cousin did this, she is a young mother of three(now four). I was impressed with what she had written and the thought she had put into having a word that you focus on for the year. I thought about it last year and wanted to do this to, but nothing, well not one word seemed right or correct to use. Well then, as it often does, I forgot! But recently I noticed someone else had done the word of the year (not sure which blog I saw it on), and I thought I really should do that. I have been thinking a lot about which word I would chose, what needed to be focus. It has been hard for me to pinpoint one word, but today I think I did it!
DO
So for the beginning of this new decade and year my focus will be Do, in 2010 I hope to DO:
When quiet promptings nudge I will DO
When idle minutes await I will DO
When someone is in need I will DO
When more is required I will DO
When asked I will DO
I plan to DO more reading, DO more sewing, DO more posting! Wish me luck and stamina...
I DO have a quilt finish for this year. I quilted this "big boy quilt" for my grandson. His mother, my daughter did all the piecing. I am proud of her accomplishments in this area. She doesn't seem to like to sew, but has done alot of it over the last couple of years as she has had a desire to make her house a home. Just for clarification...she had done appliqued scenes for his bumper pads, she unpicked (well her honey helped her do that) the bumper pads and used those on the back of this quilt...probably my most favorite feature of this quilt! Her little guy LOVES his blankets...he should they were made with love!
Tomorrow I will post my finish of the new year.

Eight!

She has arrived! Granddaughter number 5 and grandchild number eight is here!
Kamrie Dawn made her debut early this evening. She weighs 8 lbs 6 oz. and is 21 inches long.
Mom and baby doing well. Dad doesn't sound to bad either...LOL.
As soon as they send a pic I will put it up! Congrats to Seth and Dawnise and thanks for another granddaughter.

Sorry Dawnise, had to swipe a picture for here...

Happy Birthday Aliya!

I don't usually do this, and I probably won't continue (although maybe I should).

Maybe it is because she is our oldest grandchild, the first girl...I don't know, but I wanted her to know that Grandma is thinking about her.

Today she will turn 6, where have the years gone?

How did she get so grown up?

Family....plain and simple or are we?

I wasn't going to do this...but well the temptation was just to much for me! There is nothing I love more than my husband, but the grandkids, well they are a close second! (I really think he is okay with this, that is where they are on his list also...haha).

For Thanksgiving our youngest son suggested that we all meet in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving...What a great plan!

We had a blast...if you want to check out that activity go here or here to see all the fun. I am bad at taking pictures. While we were out there we had a family photo shoot, Tammy Hall took our pictures. If you are in that area, check her out, she is awesome and her outdoor studio is fabulous, not to mention the indoor one also.So here are a few of my favorites:

These pictures of my *little men* just crack me up....

all of them!
Tammy did a great job of capturing their little personalities.

And then there are Grandpa's little *Princesses*!

Oh so cute... Oh so Sweet!

Sorry Kimberly about Zurie's flower being in the center of her head...Uncle Seth was just trying to help.
You would never have believed these could have turned out like this with all the wiggling, crying and fussing going on in the studio!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

You all thought you were going to see snow....not even close! It was 99 degrees last Saturday and while it has cooled off (I am so grateful!) It has still been in the mid to upper 80's this week.

No, I have to make my own Winter Wonderland here....
I *heart* SNOWMEN!
Snowmen take me right back to my childhood, to simple times, to lots of snow in the winter, to warm cozy houses (my house here only seems to be warm in the summer...LOL), to hot chocolate and warm socks.

So when my sister in law offered a snowman quilt kit a few years ago (I'll post the finished tops in the next couple of days..I haven't quilted them yet), I jumped at the chance...okay I didn't jump, but as soon as I saw it in person I was hooked. I have made two different snowmen quilts since then and this is my third...I am behind, I had the kit a year before I started on it but isn't it nice our UFO keep!

Here is the final design (pattern front):

There are 10 stitched blocks, ranging in size from 6 1/2 x 14 to 16 x 24, and lots of varies sized in between. Rena is fantabulous at picking colors and patterns. I miss living close and seeing her excitement for fabric. You can visit her shop website here.

Sorry you can really see the blue marker in some of these. These are raw finishes, meaning I haven't trimmed them yet and I won't wash them until the quilt is finished.

This is the holly leaves and berries...sorry hard to see.

I started this project on our summer trip with the Travelers to Cottage Grove Oregon

This is actually the block I am currently working on. It is very wrinkled, it was *wadded* up in my bag. I haven't had it out since we came home from Oklahoma. I still have a good evening work on it...maybe there will be a good movie on tonight....(a girl can hope!)

Two blocks with words in them. This verse just makes me want to sip hot chocolate in front of the fireplace.
And this one, the first one I did makes me still giggle....Snow angels are just fun!
This block should be dedicated to my first trip down the slopes! No laughing Kimberly and Alex!
This isn't the best picture of all the fabrics, but I don't dare take them out of their designated bag. Like I said Rena is fantabulous at picking fabric combos and this quilt is just no exception to her talent. I LOVE these combinations and am excited to get the patchwork block done....I just made myself a promise I wouldn't start sewing blocks until the stitching was done...two blocks left!

Here was this weeks project! Neck pillows for the four youngest grandkiddles. We are planning a road trip out to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving and thought neck pillows would help the two little ones we will be traveling with. I found this pattern online, can't remember the blog or I would totally give her credit. We didn't use stuffed animals, we used the hand puppets that are currently being sold at Costco.
Here is my little helper modeling his pillow....Have pillow will travel!
Here he is ready for travel in the deep jungles of Africa! He has such personality...he always has something fun to show us!
We are off on ADVENTURE!