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!

DIY Earring Organizer

Happy Monday! I took the week off and am hoping to get a ton of half finished projects around the house done! First on my list was an organizer for my jewelry. I have everything just thrown in random places - jewelry box, bathroom medicine cabinet, gym bag, etc.  I found this tutorial on an earring organizer that I thought would work perfect with a frame I'd found at a yard sale years ago. 

photo from kevinandamanda.com

It was a little hard to find picture wire hanger, but after a few stops, I found it in the hardware section at Walmart. Time to say goodbye to this guy in picture frame, he provided lots of laughs over the past few years!

One band-aid and 30 minutes later, this to-do was complete! 

It was a lot of fun to go through my jewelry and find long lost items I forgot I had. I'm hoping to make a necklace organizer too!

Do you have any fun projects planned for the holiday week?

DIY dress

For the past month or so, I've been greatly anticipating the Farm Chicks show! I'm super excited it's almost here! I remember going with Julia last year and falling in love with this dress but was a bit hesitant to splurge at the time. 

I was kicking myself in the pants when I got home and tried to buy it online only to find it was sold out. Fast forward a few months, I stumbled upon this tutorial on a knock off dress. I set out with high hopes to make this dress but then would end up frustrated and putting the project away before picking it back up several months later.  This past weekend, I decided to finally finish off this dress and although it doesn't have the a-line like the original dress I was quite happy with the end result.I added a belt I already had instead of attempting to make one. Now I just have to work the courage up to wear it in public!

How to Knit Video

I'd been working on a project while visiting my auntie and her mother-in-law, but never learned to cast off before we had to head back home.  So after a little bit of searching, I found this super cute knitting tutorial on pinterest recently.

After watching it a few times, I was finally able to finish my scarf and made some matching fingerless cuffs!

To make the cuffs (the lion brand free pattern):

CUFF (make 2)
Cast on 15 stitches.
Work in Garter stitch (knit every stitch on every row) until piece measures about 8 1/2 in. (22 cm) from beginning.
Bind off, leaving a long yarn tail.

FINISHING
Fold knit piece in half. Thread yarn tail into blunt needle. Sew sides of Cuff together for about 2 in. (5 cm). Leave next 1 in. (2.5 cm) unsewn for thumb opening, then seam remainder of sides.
Weave yarn ends into inside (wrong side) of Cuff.

Fun Fridays! 1-28-11

Wednesday night, hubby and I ate pizza, watched Fried Green Tomatoes and finished up those bridal shower invites!  I saved the template originally thinking I was going to send them out as Valentine's Day cards, but thought they would be perfect for Em instead :)

be sure to link up if you want to join along with fun fridays too!

A Garden Affair

This past weekend, my old college roommate and I had a bridal shower for one of our other college roommates. It was a surprise for the bride - all she knew (or thought she knew) was that the three of us were getting together to do something girlie. I made up these invitations and mailed them out to a few of her closest family and friends.
She showed up a little early to the party, but was stunned none-the-less. Her mom, sister, and best friend drove down from Seattle to celebrate the occassion. I forgot to take pictures of the food spread, but we had cucumber tea sandwiches, ciabattas with either ham or turkey, greek salad, pasta salad, florentine salad, veggies, baguettes with hummus and cupcakes! Everyone got souvenirs of canned jam I had previously made- cherry jam, strawberry jam, or tayberry jam. The start of a quilt her future mother-in-law is making for the couple. There were a few other pieces put together and it was one of the most detailed designs I'd ever seen!
After opening gifts, we went to a local spa to pamper ourselves with manicures and pedicures.

The atmosphere at this spa was so relaxing - the owner has it decorated much like something straight from Italy. Only a few more weeks until the bride & groom head off to Maui for their wedding!! I hope this little get together made the bride feel so very loved!

ruffly apron

Boy, the holidays are just flying by! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I've been enjoying some time off of work by baking, shopping and dusting off the sewing machine. I found this tutorial for an apron and after putting my sewing machine into submission a few times, I finally completed it. I'll be sending the apron to a friend with a mix of hot cocoa in the mail today!

Our Playlist

At the very last minute, husband and I decided an I-POD and sound system was the best way to go for our reception. My boss (yeah, we're homies) saved the day and played as "DJ" for us. I gave him a random list of artists and told him we like classic rock, along with some John Mayer-type stuff and like a rock star, he came up with a playlist. Talk about some major stress off of my shoulders! Today, he and his wife emailed me the compiled list of songs that were played at our wedding and maybe you can find this helpful for your own!

All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
Always On Your Side - Sheryl Crow & Sting
Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
Back In Black -AC/DC
Beat It -Michael Jackson
The Boys Are Back in Town -Thin Lizzy
Brick House - Commodores
Burnin' for You - Blue Öyster Cult
Can't Help Falling In Love - UB40
Chariot - Gavin DeGraw
China Grove - The Doobie Brothers
Collide (Acoustic Version) - Howie Day
Crash Into Me -Dave Matthews Band
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da - The Police
Don't Stop - Fleetwood Mac
Don't Stop Believin' - Journey
Everlasting Love - Howard Jones
Every Breath You Take - UB40
Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen
Fly Me to the Moon - Frank Sinatra
Fool in the Rain - Led Zeppelin
Fortress Around Your Heart - Sting
Free Fallin' (Live) - John Mayer
Full Moon - The Black Ghosts
Funny the Way It Is - Dave Matthews Band
Gimme Three Steps - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Good Times Roll - The Cars
Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
Got to Get You Into My Life - Earth, Wind & Fire
Grey Seal - Elton John
Grey Street - Dave Matthews Band
Harder To Breathe -Maroon 5
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) -Marvin Gaye
I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
I Want You to Want Me (Live) - Cheap Trick
I Wish - Stevie Wonder
In a Daydream (live) - The Freddy Jones Band
Jack And Diane - John Mellencamp
Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy
The Joker - Steve Miller Band
Just What I Needed - The Cars
The Lazarus Heart - Sting
Life Is a Highway - Tom Cochrane
Listen to the Music - The Doobie Brothers
Long Train Runnin' - The Doobie Brothers
Love Is The Seventh Wave - Sting
Lucky (feat. Colbie Caillat) - Jason Mraz
Magic - The Cars
Magic Man - Heart
The Man Who Can't Be Moved - The Script
Message In A Bottle - The Police
More Than Words - Extreme
Never Say Never - The Fray
Oh Marie - Louis Prima
Only Wanna Be With You - Hootie & The Blowfish
Pink Houses - John Cougar Mellencamp
The Remedy (I Won't Worry) - Jason Mraz
Roam - The B-52's
Rock 'N Me - Steve Miller Band
Rock & Roll - Eric Hutchinson
Rock With You - Michael Jackson
Saturday In The Park - Chicago
Shambala - Three Dog Night
Should I Stay or Should I Go -The Clash
Some Kind of Wonderful - Grand Funk Railroad
Standing In The Sun - Howie Day
Start Me Up - The Rolling Stones
Stone In Love - Journey
Supermassive Black Hole - Muse
Surrender - Cheap Trick
Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Swingtown - Steve Miller Band
Take the Money and Run - Steve Miller Band
Talking in Your Sleep - The Romantics
This Love - Maroon 5
Train in Vain - The Clash
Upside Down - Jack Johnson
Waiting On the World to Change - John Mayer
We'll Be Together - Sting
We Are In Love - Harry Connick, Jr.
What's Your Name? - Lynyrd Skynyrd
What I Like About You - The Romantics
Why Georgia - John Mayer
Wrapped Around Your Finger (Live) - The Police
You're My Best Friend - Queen
You and Me - Lifehouse
You Wreck Me - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Your Body Is A Wonderland - John Mayer
Your Love (L.O.V.E Reggae Mix) - Wyclef Jean Feat. Eve
Your Song (Live) - Elton John

Raspberry goodness; thank you very much!

I finally got around to using the last of our raspberries our awesome neighbors gave us and made these delicious crumb bars. I followed the recipe, with the exception of using raspberries in place of blueberries, as well as adding 1 tsp. of coconut extract to the middle layer. Yum, yum! Also, I've been working on these babies:

No Sporks here

When I saw these here, I thought it would be an easy way to add a little color to the tables. Sis and I spent an afternoon folding, cutting, tying, and repeating. Oh yeah, and there was definitely some more Arrested Development!

Each one turned out like this: And the final product:

Even the wine got dressed up!

The weekend my sis came to visit, we got a lot accomplished. One of those items were these little wine bottle bibs that said "Please drink responsibly!". We thought it'd be a good idea to have those on the drinks since the dirt road up to the ranch was long, narrow and basically on the edge of a cliff. These were pretty easy to make - just printed the note on a piece of card stock, used a few punches and looped them with twine. And yes, that's Three Buck Chuck!

Rehearsal Invitations

Since our wedding invitations were so time consuming, I wanted to put together something much, much more simple for the rehearsal invites. I even considered not sending any out, but my love for paper was much too great!

I printed these on regular cardstock I had leftover from the invites and was able to fit both pages on just one sheet. I used a Martha Stewart craft punch for the top page and made sure to align the red underneath so it showed through. After placing the first page on top of the second, I used a rectangular punch I found at Michael's and tied a knot through the two punches to bind the pages together.

I had some leftover scrapbook paper that I traced an envelope template onto by carefully disassembling an envelope I had around the house in the right size and then cut and folded to make envelopes. And voila, they were off!

Finally, our invitations!

Here are the invitations, as promised! These were a true labor of love!! Steele and I started working on them back in January and about 3 weeks ago one of my BMs and I spent 7 hours (yes, SEVEN!) corner-cutting and assembling these babies. We used Brock and Minion for the fonts. I also had a Spanish version that I made for those family members que no hablan Inglés. I mailed ourselves a copy before sending them out to our guests. I hope they liked them! I scanned the bird details from a congrats/wedding card we'd sent to 2 different couples! I wonder if they noticed when they received our invites...I don't know if you can tell, but at the bottom of the RSVP card, it had a note that said "Psst...Help the newlyweds build their cookbook by bringing your favorite recipe to the reception! See you soon...Mireya & Steele" Who knows if our guests will actually do it, but it was a fun little detail none-the-less!I just finished our rehearsal dinner invites and a draft of our program. I'll post some pictures soon :)

Perfect!

I've been saving cans and jars for about 5 months now, cutting my fingers while doing so and not really knowing how I was going to utilize them for the wedding until I saw this today:

Oh Once Wed, how I love you! Check out instructions here.