High Five for Friday 8.31.12

This week just flew by! Here's 5 things I'm high-fiving this friday:

Today marks the last day of "No eating out" month!!! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. With just a little coordination and pre-planning we were able to go this entire month without stopping by for fast food or eating out. Definitely helped the checkbook and I was excited to get this one off of my 30 before 30 list :) I want to go for sushi but he wants a steak, we'll see!

The past weekend, I crossed another item off my list - GO CAMPING!! It was a blast!! We went with our friends and their 2 kids and though they stayed in a trailer and even offered us a bed, I figured I had to do the real deal - pitch a tent and sleeping bag! It was sooooo much fun, it's been nearly 2 decades since I've been camping and I am daydreaming of the next time we'll go!  The spot we camped at was perfect too, in the national forest, surrounded by beautiful evergreens alongside a creek. It was just wonderful waking up to the sound of the water trickling by in the early morning hours.

While we were camping, we we made our way to the top of the mountain to pick huckleberries!! We kept calling it purple gold because of how time consuming picking these little gems are and now I'm conflicted what recipe I should use them up on - huckleberry peach pie, jam, scones, tart??? Decisions, decisions!

Looking forward to a long holiday weekend. We don't have anything specifically planned, just catch up on little house stuff and relax. 
 
We are finally done with our deck staining! Well mostly, but for pictures sake, here's the before and after. I just love that it feels like a brand new deck :)

Happy Friday friends! If you want to play along, be sure to link up!

DIY Laundry Detergent

I've been wanting to try making laundry detergent for some time now, in hopes that we could save a little bit of money.  I did a search on pinterest and finally decided on these instructions from How Does She. So I went shopping and about $30 later (not counting the 6-pack of half gallon jars which was an additional $10) I got to putting together the detergent. I was really hoping to use Zote bars, but after looking at 6 different stores and not having any luck I just decided to go with Fels-Naptha. I'll definitely keep my eye out for the Zote in the future!  Also, I really wanted to use the gallon mason jars, but they were pretty spendy, and the whole point of this was to save a little money!  Plus I think the half-gallon jars will be easier to store on the higher shelves in our laundry room. 

DIY Detergent 

from How Does She 

1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax

1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 (3 lb) Container of OxyClean

2 (14.1 oz) Bars of Zote Soap (You can also use Fels Naptha)

1 (4 lb) Box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda

2 (28 oz) Bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener (You could double for extra softener and scent)

I started off by shredding the Fels-Naptha. Next, I layered everything little by little in a lined 5-gallon bucket for easier mixing and stirred it up until it was all blended. This makes your house smell really good, by the way!  Then I just funneled into the jars until I ran out.

I ended up with 5 half gallon jars of detergent.  You use 1-2 tablespoons depending on how big your load is. I'll give an update in the future to see if this is cost effective!

High Five for Friday 8.10.12

Happy Friday, and what a lovely one it is! Here's 5 things I'm high-fivin today!

 

1. Hubby just got his wisdom teeth out this morning and I get to pamper him all weekend! It was soooo funny when we were leaving - they had given him laughing gas before the surgery and as we were walking him out to the car, he says "woohoo, it's MILKSHAKE TIME, YEEHAAAW!!" I couldn't stop laughing!!

watching espn with bailey

2.  I've been working on a few of my 30 before 30 goals, one of them being "no eating out month", ack!  We tried this back in June but with several out of town trips, this was too difficult for us. So far, this month has gone smoothly, and meal planning has really helped!  I used this super cute calendar from Life After Breakfast to keep track of upcoming meals.  (She makes a new one for every month, keep your eyes peeled for them!)

from life after breakfast

3. My 5 week photography class ended recently with a fun night out shooting! This past week, Julia and I took an evening workshop with Chris Keating, he was hilarious! And it was great to get another person's point of view on the topic. It's been fun figuring out how to shoot in manual!

4. We spent all last weekend working on cleaning and scrubbing our deck for restaining. Wow, I didn't realize how much work it would be! My words of advice would be to not get discouraged when it doesn't look like the cleaner/brightener isn't working after hours of scrubbing - just wait until it dries and you'll really see the difference! I'll post before and after pics of the finished product!

before

5. Our dear friends Emily and Pat are in town for a few weeks before they head to Africa for a mission trip. They came over Tuesday night for dinner, rhubarb pie and the Olympics - it was such a blessing to spend some quality time with them before they leave!

Well that's it from me, hope you have a wonderful weekend! Be sure to play along and link up!