Random Thoughts

How can it possibly be July already?  I mean, where did the first half of the year go?  Since my last post, I sorted through my kitchen and got rid of some stuff.  I have lots of plarn ready to be crocheted.  I've sorted through all of my Stumbleupon pages and I've finished a couple of projects that I've been putting off.

I've been thinking about Halloween and Christmas - thanks to Pinterest.  I need to make a list of who I want to get presents for and I need to start making gifts that I want to give.  I need to get into blogger and figure out this new format, but again, I'm just a casual blogger and it's not really a big deal as long as I can sign in and type.

Sorting Out

First off, let me say that it's a good thing that I'm not one of those bloggers that's trying to make money doing this because I'd fail.  I'm just a random blogger.  I blog when I want to.

So anyways, I've been busy sorting.  You should see my living room.  Since April 14th, almost a month now, my living room and hallway and foyer have been stacked with stuff left over from my yardsale.  I finally finished sorting and pricing it and my sister packed it away in plastic tubs for the next yardsale.  My living room is clean - yeh!

So, I decided I would sort through and organize some other things in my life.  I labeled everything in my craft room.  I have some recycled shoe organizers that I'm going to store my yarn in.  I am slowly making my way through all my plastic bags, cutting them up to make plarn.

I found all the slips of paper lying around by my computer with user names and passwords and wrote them all down in an old address book that was lying around.  Now, if I can only keep track of the address book!

I have (had) 21 pages of stumbles that I had "liked" - crafts, recipes, gardening, camping, etc.  I am going through them one by one and printing out the ones that I want or deleting them.  I'm down to 19 pages - woo hoo!  It feels so good to get rid of stuff - even if it's only virtual.

I hope to tackle all my digital photos and my kitchen.  After sorting through my kitchen, I'll ask my daughter and then my daughter-in-law if they want anything.  All this extra stuff has to go!

Homemade Febreeze

I can't believe how expensive Febreeze is.  My homemade laundry detergent works so well that I decided to make my own Febreeze.  It's a very simple recipe.



1/8 cup of fabric softener
2 tbs. of baking soda
hot tap water

Pour all ingredients into a plastic spray bottle.  Shake the bottle to mix.  Use anyplace that you would normally use Febreeze.  It works just as well as the real thing and I love how much money I'll be saving.

PS - always shake the bottle before spraying.

Easy Breezy Easter

Easter does not feel like a holiday to me.  We do not celebrate Easter, per se, at my church; instead we celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus every Sunday when we take communion.  My kids are grown so there are no Easter eggs or Easter baskets - no jelly beans or chocolate bunnies.

When I got home from church, my sister and I went to the beach.  I've lived in Florida for 25 years and I only live about 10 miles from the beach, but I'm not a big beach person.  It was a beautiful day to go.   It was sunny and cool and relatively uninhabited.  I got some nice conch shells and a few pieces of sea glass.  Sea glass is tough to find; the pieces I found are small and I'm going to see if I can make a necklace out of them.  I also found my very first shark's tooth.  My sister has a knack for finding shark's teeth.  Anyways, we came home with a small handful of them.

Afterwards, we went to Dairy Queen and got a couple of large blizzards - yum!  After that, we came home and took a nap.  What a perfect day!

Pinterest

My daughter introduced me to Pinterest and I love it.  Some people think it's just an artsy fartsy site or a design wannabe site, but it's more than that.  Creating your own boards and pinning & re-pinning items allows your friends, family, and the world insight into who you are as a person.  It lets me be totally me and that is very cool.

Home made Dish Cloths

I've noticed that I blog in spurts, which is OK I guess.  A few weeks ago, I wrote about making home made laundry soap.  Today, it's dish cloths (or rags, as we used to call them growing up).  I've seen a lot of patterns for dish clothes, but the cloths are too small.  I need something substantial, something that going to wipe a fair piece of counter top.

Here's my pattern (easy of course if you can crochet)

Chain 34. 
Row 1 - Single chain in the 2nd chain from the hook to the end (33 sc).  Turn.
Rows 2 - 45 - chain one and single chain to end of row.  Turn
Tie off.

That's it - you know, it's got to be easy or else, I'm not interested.

Homemade Laundry Soap

I've seen this recipe for homemade laundry soap all over the internet.  Last week, my sister, who does all the laundry, came to me and said, "we've only got one bottle of laundry detergent left."  So I decided that now is the perfect time to make my own laundry soap and see if it really works.  It only has three ingredients, and it's easy to make (one of my favorite words - easy!)

Ingredients:

1/2 bar of Fels-Naptha soap
1 cup of borax
1 cup of washing soda

all of these ingredients can be found at Walmart.

Grate the soap into a container.  I used a regular 4-sided metal grater (smallest grate).  Add the borax and the washing soda and mix well.  I store the laundry soap in a small covered plastic container.  Use 1 - 2 tablespoons per load of laundry.

I brought home some dirty kitchen towels from the church and washed them using this laundry soap.  It worked.  The towels came out clean and smelled fresh.  This stuff works.