Hi...

The last month has been very full. We had family visit from out of state and had two weeks of wonderful family reunion time. I photographed a cute little wedding. We had two nights of Open House at the preschool I work at. There have been track meets for both of my kids. We have also had the sniffles, sneezes and coughs in my house.

I got this Lemon Plum at the store last friday - delicious...

My Mom-in-Law gave me her old Nook - I am in LOVE! I have been thinking about getting an e-reader but was worried I wouldn't like it (I am a book girl) but I do. I have already re-read Outlander and now I am re-reading Dragon fly in Amber...

I got two new cookbooks from the book fair we had at Open House...

And, I bought some pansies...

Have a wonderful week...
{hugs}
Laura

Orange Enzyme...

I'm trying something new. I saw this post from homemade mamas many months ago and thought it would be great to make a all purpose cleaner but, I didn't want to wait three months for it do be done. Well, I came across it again the other day while looking for a window cleaner and decided to give it a try. We have been eating oranges and cuties like crazy lately and it only took a couple of days to get enough peels to start.

Here is my bottle...

Results in three months. 

{hugs}

Laura

Laundry Soap - Take 2...

I have been making liquid laundry soap for almost a year now and I really like it. I takes about 30 minutes to make and then you let it sit for 24 hours to gel-up before it can be used.

But, I wanted something easier and making the powder version is.

First, I grated one bar of Fels-Naptha soap. I used a large zester, which is a really fine grater, to do this.

I worked great. It made a very fine shred which was easy to mix with the powder ingredients.

Then I added one cup each of Borax, washing soda and baking soda.

After breaking up the larger chunks of Borax and washing soda with my hands, I mixed it together really good.

I'm storing it in a Mason jar. Just two tablespoons for a large dirty load or one tablespoon for a smaller load. This recipe should be good for about 30 loads of laundry.

I'm on my second weekend of laundry using it and I am very happy with it. 

{hugs}
Laura

Be My Valentine...

I get e-mails from Lily Sugar and Cream. I love cotton yarn and Lily has a ton of fabulous colors at really great prices. Well, one of their newest free crochet patterns is the Be My Valentine Dishcloth.
Super cute and easy to do - I love it.

{hugs}
Laura