Hanging the Colors

Tags

DIY Independence Day decorations, DIY July 4th decorations, Independence Day, independence day decorations, July 4th, july 4th decorations, picture decor, wall decor

A quick, easy way to add seasonal or holiday cheer to the decor of any room is to have a constant base to the decoration — in other wards, a perpetual decoration that can be changed-out according to the theme.

When I began doing a little decorating for the 4th of July a few weeks ago, the first thing I did was change out the pictures in my dining room.  I have several picture frames (six, actually) that match, and each season or holiday I change out the pictures that are in them.  I actually only use three of the frames — since we’re planning on putting a family photo wall there I didn’t want to hang all six and have extra nail holes in the wall to fill later.

When I found these patriotic napkins at a discount store ($.50 a package!), I scooped them up and decided that I’d use a few for the picture frames before I put the rest out to use as napkins.  The first problem I had to tackle….

…were the fold marks going two directions on each napkin, and they would show once they were in the frames.  So I figured if I got the fold marks wet and then flattened them with my finger or a spoon, the fold marks would be gone when they dried.

So, I gathered some things to make the fold marks wet…

This is one of those “Don’t try this at home (or anywhere else)” cautions.  

I have an abundance of syringes — I promise I’m not a drug addict — and I thought that would work to wet just the fold marks of the napkins.  Again, wetting the fold marks using the syringe method was a total waste of time, and I must have had a screw loose to even consider it.  But, at any rate, it went like this:

I put the napkins on plastic so I wouldn’t get the table really wet…

…then began wetting the fold marks.

And it worked!  But there was a problem…

The fold marks were wrinkled up and the rest of the napkin was smooth.  Yeah, no one would notice that, right?  So, although the fold marks couldn’t really be seen as well, I had to get the napkin uniform all over.  That meant getting the whole napkin wet.  And I didn’t have the patience to dribble water all over three napkins from a syringe.  So, I pulled out something that would make the job faster.

And, there they were.

They all looked very uniform all over, so I set them outside on the front porch and the summer heat dried them in no time.

The napkins dried with this beautiful wavy, wrinkly thing going on, and I began to like it.

I gathered my frames and removed the Spring/early Summer pictures I’d slapped haphazardly in the frames earlier in the year.

They would have looked better had I been able to find my mat boards, but they didn’t turn up, so I had just thrown the pictures in the frames without mat boards.  Lovely.

I took the 8×10 paper backing out of the frames and used them as a template to cut the napkins to the right size.  If you use anything with a pattern, care has to be taken to center the template over the part of the picture, painting or material that you want to use in the frames.  That is the part everyone will be seeing.

Once you have the pictures cut to size, you can then put them in the frames, close the back of the frames, and hang them up.  It was easy for me, since I hang them back in the same place every time.

The wavy texture of the wrinkled napkins actually has a good effect.  It would look much better with all six frames filled and hanging there, but again, we are planning on changing the whole wall soon.  I would like to eventually rip off those annoying pieces on the backs of the frames that make it so you can stand the picture on a table, but the frames do not belong to me, and I try to respect City Boy’s things.

So, that’s an inexpensive, quick, easy way to add a little seasonal/holiday decor to a room.  For Christmas I had pictures of candy canes in the frames, and for Easter I had a big egg of a different color in each, and so on.  And changing the pictures out is a snap.

You can buy anything from fancy frames to dollar store frames, bigger or smaller frames, or even one huge poster-size frame — then just keep changing the pictures.  It’s one way to fill a bare wall and make it pop for any occasion.

Here’s hoping everyone is gearing up for a fantastic July 4th celebration!

Bad Dog

Tags

baby, baby pictures, Beginning photography, birds, Bluebonnet, Humor, nature photography, Robin, spring, Texas flower

Last Spring Lucy got in big trouble.  City Boy left one of his school books out on the ottoman and Lucy laid down beside it.  It gave me an idea for a picture using a method I had seen Jay (my younger daughter Emily’s photographer husband) demonstrate.  I made the picture and posted it on Facebook, and poor Lucy created quite a stir without even knowing it!

The caption on the picture had read, “Frank shouldn’t have left his textbook laying around.”

A few people were shocked, including one commenter who stated that he would have kicked the you-know-what out of Lucy for that!  I didn’t expect reactions like that so I hurried and posted that this was a fake picture and Lucy didn’t hurt Frank’s book.  I had been trying to learn to do pictures like this, and didn’t even think it looked real or that anyone else would think it was.  Anyway, except for the mix-up, my first try at pictures like this was fun!

Earlier that same Spring we were in Texas to visit Frank’s family and happened upon a field of Bluebonnets, the Texas state flower.  There were droves of people in the field taking pictures, so we went to the very edge of the flowers to take a picture of Lucy in them.

I might need to mention that, unless she is held down, Lucy does not hold still more than a second.  Ever.

We gave up after the last one.  I had not started trying to get “good” at taking pictures yet (and it shows), and Lucy was having too much fun.  I even tried to make the cars less noticeable in the first picture by casting that “mysterious shadow” effect around the edges of the picture.  You already see how well THAT worked (or didn’t).

This year our resident birds (which we seem to have a host of) seem to always be picking around in the yard.  I couldn’t quite get all the photography “noise” out of these, I’m assuming because of operator error and also that these were taken from a long way and my camera does not have as big of a zooming capability as I would like.  That said, I caught this little fella/girlie-girl in the yard the other day.  I am not familiar with this kind of bird…

While I was trying to take pictures of it, he/she began to get agitated, and then the feathers started ruffling up.

When I got my face out of the camera long enough to look, I realized what the bird was getting bent out of shape about…

Our resident robin decided she didn’t want any trouble, so she flew into the front yard and found that Frank had put some more bread crumbs out for her (he always does that and that’s why she was so fat over the winter), so all was well.

I captured shots of these two birds while I was in my house, shooting through the window — they were perched at the top of a high tree that was located in another yard, so they were quite a distance from me.

One of these days I’ll actually get out of my yard and go take pictures someplace else.  Laziness does have its drawbacks!  I tend to do a lot more picture-taking in the warm weather — in fact, it’s about all I do when I can wander around outside and find things to take pictures of!

Frank’s daughter Becca has been working hard to craft Precious Baby some hair accessaries, and so now Baby is really in high fashion!  Becca did a fantastic job, and City Boy and I love when she keeps those pictures of Precious Baby coming!

Well, the evening hour is upon us, and I hope everyone is snuggled in at home ready to have a relaxing evening.  If not, be careful out there!

Related articles

• Bird Walk: April 2nd, 2013 (quintamazatlan.wordpress.com)
• PHOTOS: Beautiful bluebonnets bring royal color to Texas countryside (kens5.com)
• the texas bluebonnet. (acitybornlove.com)
• The Colors Of Wild (thismansjourney.net)
• Common Flowers in Texas (proflowers.com)
• The Texas Bluebonnet (ourgrainofsand.wordpress.com)

Setting Up A Photography Light Box (Sort Of)

Tags

baby, baby photograph, Beginning photography, Camera, DIY, DIY light box, Do it yourself, Humor, Lightbox, Photography, photography light, photography light bulb, photography lighting, tracing paper

Well, I’ve been at it again.  

First of all, I’ve mentioned quite a few times that I love taking pictures but that I’m a real amateur when it comes to photography.  I’ve learned a lot, but I have a long way to go. That said, I must admit to something that happened to me a few weeks ago and has been eating at me ever since.

I was scrolling through the blogs I follow, when I came upon the daily post of a blogger friend we’ll call Cindy (well, we’ll call her that because that’s her name), and she always takes gorgeous pictures, so I like to look at her blog, among others.  So, low and behold, her pictures suddenly became even more stunning!  Then I noticed her post said that these pictures were taken with her new camera!!!  

Well, I just had to see about this, so I read her post (here) and looked at her pictures of her new camera until I was just green with envy.  Cindy, it seems, had been using a camera with similar capabilities to mine (and had still taken better pictures), and now had acquired a camera with fabulous features that I very much had been wanting for myself.  Curses!

So then I just decided that I was tired of my pictures looking like they were taken by a blind person with no fingers, and started taking steps to amp up my game.  City Boy had already told me he wasn’t getting me the Mother Of All Cameras until I learned to use the camera I had.  Fair enough.  I would show you a picture of my camera but I can’t take a picture of my camera WITH my camera.  And, well, you’ve seen the kind of pictures my cell phone takes.

So, I decided I would start with trying to improve my food pictures (don’t look at the food posts in my blog yet; I haven’t started improving) and later happened to stumble upon another blog that had a great post for making a DIY photography light box (here).  And it was not difficult, woohoo!

I already had most of the materials, except tracing paper, so I asked City Boy to pick me up some on his way home from work IF it wasn’t too expensive.  “I’ll use something else if it’s over (x) amount,” I told him.  All he heard me say was “tracing paper.”

He came home with a tablet of tracing paper with the price sticker still on the front.  I almost flew at him like a rabid monkey when I saw the price.  Actually, I calmly asked him why he paid so much.  “You said you needed tracing paper,” he said.

Overpriced tracing paper, tag removed

So, anyway, I made the light box and was pretty pleased with it.  Sure, it looks like I picked it up ready-made at the city dump, but I never claimed to be that handy at cutting a big glass-pack moving box with a pair of sewing scissors.  

Frank is pretty nice to indulge me sometimes.  Last week he took me into the city to look around a photography supply shop and see what I could see.  What a mistake — I wanted everything!  After discovering that the hobby of photography was an expensive one, I had a salesperson come over and help me, and I decided that I should get some special photography light bulbs to use with my light box (plus, they were the cheapest least expensive things in the place).

All happy with my decision, the salesman asked me which kind of bulb I wanted.  “There’s a difference?” I asked.

I was told that one gets very hot, and the other one doesn’t and also lasts longer than the “hot’ version.  I almost went for the one that doesn’t catch things on fire, when I discovered that there was a nearly $60 price difference per bulb.  Okay, well then, I’d just have to run a fan when I took pictures.

So, thinking I was happily decided, I was then told that the “hot” bulbs required a special ceramic light socket.  How much was that?  Theirs were $119 apiece.  Dang, foiled again.

For about the third time, I went out to the truck, dejected, and told City Boy the news.  He had been waiting in the truck with Lucy (because, of course, he can NEVER go anyplace without her).  Frank sent me back into the store after telling me to pick up some of the “hot” lights because he was sure that hardware stores carried work lights with ceramic sockets that were a whole lot cheaper less expensive.

Into the store I went again, happily decided.  Or so I thought.  The salesman asked, “How many watts do you want?”  “Wha…?” I asked back.  “There’s 250 watt and 500 watt.”

“Um,” I stammered, “will the 250 be bright enough?”  He demonstrated it.  Blinded and feeling my way out of the store after my purchase, I was mildly confident I hadn’t just wasted $10.50.

A day later and a trip to Home Depot wiser, we were the proud owners of one work/photography light, for starters.

My maiden voyage with using the light box was without the photography light — I was still a little nervous about burning my house down.  I grabbed the first thing I saw to put in the light box (my box of Easter decorations was still sitting next to the garage door in the utility room waiting to be taken out), and just used natural light.

With some Princess House in the light box, I tried it with just natural light coming in from one side.

Then I finally got brave and powered up the photography light (fingers crossed).  Except maybe I shouldn’t have used mirrored plaques as my subject, since it kind of reflected the camerawoman.

This is with only one photography light, placed above the light box — the ideal light setup is supposed to be a light on either side of the light box as well.  We really wanted to see how it went before we went full throttle on this.  What do you think of the results so far?

Cindy, my fellow blogger with the new camera, has been extremely supportive of me, and I am not the least bit mad at her for getting her new camera — it’s fun to kid around from time-to-time, and I am pleased that she is having a great time with her fantastic new acquisition! 

Of course, my blog would not be complete if it didn’t INclude a picture of Precious Baby before I CONclude this post (I take great pride in my corniness).  Have a wonderful, wonderful day, and I’ll sign off with this picture of Precious Baby at the zoo looking at the penguins!

Hearts and Candy and Kisses and Blessings

Tags

craft, crafts, DIY, free printables, Holiday, printable, printables, Valentine, Valentine crafts, Valentine Day, Valentine's Day

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, I’ve been trying to think up something neat to do for City Boy — I have begun to decorate the house, since time’s-a-wastin’ for that.  But Frank is not much for appreciating interior decor per se.  One would think that after 20 years in the Navy he would really enjoy the finer things that he missed all those long periods of time shipboard.  But no.

So, I have to just decorate to my own taste and hope that, over time, he will grow to like it.  He already has come over to my side on a lot of things like that, but still has a basic decorating instinct that gravitates to the style of the inside of a battleship.  I try to work around it.  And now I’m trying to come up with things I think he’ll really enjoy.

But, first things first.  I’ve found some really neat printables that will make really nice projects (and they’re free!).  Here’s a few that were featured on the Makoodle site.

This printable comes in two sizes to be compatible for framing, among other things.

It downloads in a 4X6 and a 5X7 size for framing, or cutting up and using in projects.  The download version of this can be found here.

Something else ultra-cute that I found on Makoodle were these sweet Hershey Kiss Labels, also free.  If you don’t have pre-made stickers (she tells you where you can get them), you can use a circle punch to make them into circles after printing them off.  

The download for these can be found here.

And if you want to put your candies in little bags, here are some cute bag toppers to download and print:

So, in no time a person can make all sorts of sweet little Valentine gifts for everyone on their sweetie list.  

Rebecca, from The Crafted Sparrow, designed a couple of sweet Valentine printables.  One is a subway-style print for framing and crafts that comes in three color choices, shown here:

These can be downloaded separately here.  And the other irresistible Valentine printable from The Crafted Sparrow is this simple multipurpose little gem:

You can download and/or print it from here and do a variety of sweet projects with it!

That’s all the project hunting I’ve done so far, but there is so much to be found either online or out and about around town that the sky is the limit as far as Valentine projects go!

In talking about heartfelt love, my friend Karen posted a video of a tiny baby capuchin monkey with a heart full of love that belongs to one of her former students.  It is so heartfelt and sweet and will just melt YOUR heart!  I just had to share the link to the video here.  Please give it a watch if you get the chance, and listen carefully to what the little girl is saying at the beginning (she is whispering and hard to hear).

And another couple of pictures of Frank’s daughter Becca’s Precious Baby:

And, Frank’s youngest son Daniel has a baby girl as well, so I will be posting some pictures of her on here soon, just in time for Valentine’s Day.  A baby is the purest symbol of love, and around Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to show off all those sweet little cherubs.

Have a wonderful day today and be thinking of hearts and candy and kisses and blessings!

Related articles

• A Pretty Little Pink Party (tolivebeautifully.com)
• DIY Saturday | Free Valentine’s Day Printable (ahdalin.com)
• Alphabet Valentine Card (bedifferentactnormal.com)
• Top 10 Valentine crafts for kids (nurturestore.co.uk)

Rustic Swag

Tags

Christmas, Christmas decor, Christmas entry table, craft, crafts, DIY, DIY swag, entry table, grass swag, Holiday, holiday decor, holiday entry table, natural crafts, nature crafts, rustic, rustic swag, Swag

Christmas is over for another year, and it always looks so bare around the house when the decorations are taken down, doesn’t it?  We get so used to it all over the month or more that we have our houses all gussied-up.  And it’s really bad when there are some bare spots in your decor even when the holiday decorations are up.  That’s where I found myself before Christmas, even though we’d been living here since February.  Still a lot of bare spots that needed a little decor.

While I was decorating, I decided to take care of one of those spaces that looked bland and bare, so I decided to make a swag.  We have an entry table with a picture over it, and I have always thought it looked like it needed…something.  Ever since the Fall decorating had begun I had wondered what to do with it, and finally decided to put a swag there.

Our entry table is a modern one that has been purposely distressed, so a rustic type swag was what I was looking for.  Several shopping trips later, I still hadn’t found anything that screamed “Take me!  I’m the perfect swag!”   Finally, after the Christmas decorations were all up, I decided to make one.

Back to shopping I went, looking for materials.  Being frugal (cheap), I just couldn’t bring myself to pay a huge price for each component of a long swag.  Finally, I remembered my Fall foraging trip that City Boy had taken me on, the one where I gathered all the Fall foliage.  At one point, we had gone into an open field and I had cut a big bunch of overgrown field grass.  Most of it had gone to seed, but I managed to clip most of it without the seed head.  It was above the knee, less than waste high.

Once home, I hung the whole bunch upside down in the garage, and then forgot about it.  And so, once I remembered the grass again, the swag in this picture is what I ended up with.  

If you are not into rustic, collecting grass in the Fall is probably not something it would be of benefit for you to do.  Dried grass is always going to look rustic.  Well, maybe if you spray-painted it silver or gold it would look more updated — I’ll have to try that and see.  I’ll try anything once.  Almost anything.

Here are the things I used to create this rustic grass swag:

Scissors, twine, long dried grass.

This is another weed that I had drying at the same time the grass was — I didn’t have a full-length picture of the grass.

Gather the overgrown grass in any field that hasn’t been mowed in awhile.    I used scissors to cut it off as close to the ground as possible.  Gather a huge bunch — remember that it will seem like much more when it is in its live state than when it is dry, so gather more than you think you will need.

Tie the bottom of the bunch of grass with some twine, leaving long ends so you can tie it around something to hang it upside down.  Let it dry for at least several days; longer is even better.

When ready to make the swag, separate the grass into small bunches that are about the density you want your swag to be.  Lay them out on a flat surface so you can work with them.  I laid mine out on the floor.

Use the twine to tie the bunches together, overlapping the end of one bunch with the beginning of another.  Leave stray blades of grass loose from the twine to give the swag a more natural, full look.  Continue this process until the swag is the desired length.

Shape the swag to suit what you are using it for.  I did some bending and shaping before I put the swag up, and then did some touch-up shaping after I had it in place above the picture over the entry table.  For the purpose in the picture, the swag is resting on the picture with nothing else holding it up, but for other purposes it would probably need to be tacked here and there to the wall.  

I have not tried seeing how this would look on a mantle or a table, but if I make another one or move this one I will have to try that and see how it looks.  

Here are a few pictures I took while in the process of making the swag:

Grass spread out on the floor made it easier to work with

Beginning of the swag — two bunches tied together

Close-up

Third bunch ready to be added on

Third bunch added on, tied off, twine cut — I think I used seven or so bunches altogether for this swag

The finished product.  I did fluff this swag up some after I took this picture because I had it too squared-off.  This swag can be made shorter or longer — as long as there is overgrown grass available, a swag can be made.

 One of these days I might do something rustic with the other weeds that are still hanging out in the garage (unless City Boy has thrown them out thinking I was not going to use them).

Rustic isn’t for everybody, just like ultra modern isn’t for everybody, but I enjoy it any time natural things are used in home decor.  The materials are all around us, we don’t have to spend a lot of money making things from them, and best of all, nothing gets wasted.

If you get a chance, go on a nature walk and get some ideas for things you can use to make your atmosphere pleasant.  There are so many things, especially this time of year, that are laying out there dormant or dead that can be brought back to life by your creativity.   So let your creative juices flow out of every pore, and have a blessed day!

The Bountiful Tightwad

Tags

Centrepiece, fall, fall decorating, Gourd, Holiday, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving centerpiece

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I wanted to change-up my dining room centerpiece to something more, well, bountiful-looking.  Being frugal, I first looked around my house to see what was here that I could use for free.  Well, no luck.  It is a contradiction to make something look bountiful while being a tightwad.

On a trip to the store for a few ingredients for supper, I passed by some bins of gourds and pumpkins outside the store.  Well, maybe.  Inside were about ten cartloads of what was left of the Halloween stuff.  I don’t do a lot of Halloween decorating, so I kept walking until I got to the last several carts.  Jackpot.

There was a bunch of Fall stuff on sale.  Oh, goody goody!

So, here are a few things I found that perhaps a lot of stores around the nation have on sale this time of year.

Combined with the leaves and berries in the centerpiece I was already using (behind all my sale stuff in the picture), I made a decent bountiful centerpiece for $9.

Your style of decorating for Turkey Day may be different than mine, but whatever way you decorate, now is the time to go grab some of those Fall decoration items that a lot of stores have on sale if you want to make something really thankful-looking.    Be creative.  It is as easy as layering decorating items in a container in any way that looks good to you.

For a point of reference, the things I used, layered in this order, were:

• A platter thingy found in the Thanksgiving section for $1.
• Three bags of mixed gourds for $1@.
• Two containers of prepackaged Fall ornamental fruit and foliage for $2.50@.
• The waxed leaves and wild berries I had already been using on the dining table for decoration.

In the past I saved one bunch of gourds for years, which surprised me.  I figured they would have rotted, but they just dried.  Maybe I was just lucky with that bunch, so I will see if these gourds dry and keep as well.  It is even more delightful to a frugal person when they get out of having to buy the same thing year after year!

If you have Fall-ish stuff already on hand that you like, creating a bountiful Thanksgiving display will be even easier.  Either way, a harvest centerpiece doesn’t have to be complicated to look good.  I am no decorator, so if I can easily make one, anybody can.  And it doesn’t have to look cheap–only you need to know that it really is.

A funny, sweet lady and great blogger came up with the fitting title for this post, so if you get a chance, you might enjoy giving Cindy’s fantastic blog a look, here.

Have fun whatever you do, because this is the perfect season for it!  Have a blessed week! 

Leftover Bag Recycle

Tags

gift wrapping, grocery bags, Plastic bag, recycling, repurpose, Tissue paper, wrapping paper

Practically every day I am looking for ways to repurpose stuff.  Okay, so I already know I am a total cheapskate, but I guess I am compelled to constantly share my overly frugal ways in Blogland.  Maybe it’s a sickness with me, I don’t know.

Anyway, above is a picture of a couple of presents I recently took to a couple of events.

My daughter, Megan, is having a baby boy around Christmas!  We’re very excited!  A shower for her is the event the white Christmas wrapped present was for.

The recycling part:

The baby is coming around Christmas, so the Christmas theme on the bag fit the occasion.  I had saved the bag from a present my City Boy had gotten last year.  The tissue paper in the bag is NOT tissue paper, it is grocery bags!

Cut the bottom and top off of a plastic grocery bag, cut down either side of the logo or printing on the bag, and you have one long piece of plastic.  I used four in this present.  But I save grocery bags, and have an arsenal of them.

Say what you will about going too far with being cheap, nobody cared that the baby gift filling wasn’t tissue paper! 

The green present in the Avon bag is for my grandson (and apple of my eye), who recently had a birthday.  It is in an Avon bag because he likes green, and I already had the bag.  I save gift and shopping bags as well.  I also save tissue paper from gifts I get, and happened to have this matching green paper.  He didn’t know or care that the bag was an Avon bag or that the bag and tissue paper were recycled.  Pretty lucky, smart and frugal, huh?

Both gifts looked nice, and both were open in seconds and all the wrapping thrown on the floor to be swept up and thrown away.  Glad I didn’t pay a dime for any of it!

And my house actually does not look like one of those houses on the show “Hoarders” from me saving everything that comes into my house.  I am selective about what I save, and I keep it organized, keep it neat and looking nice, and put it up where I can find it.  I guess I am an organized pack rat.  

Bottom line is, wrapping supplies are getting really expensive.  Saving gift bags, retail bags, and tissue paper can save you a lot of money.  And who will know or care that it is reused–maybe the present-wrapping police?

Grocery bags you’ve saved can be used for so many things!  

Plastic grocery bags can be used for (to name only a few):

Trash bags for small trash cans

Garbage bags

Dog-walking bags

Gift filler (as explained above)

Shoe bags when traveling to keep shoes from soiling clothes in the suitcase

Cut the bottom of the bag off and you have a plastic tank top OLDER children can use to protect the front of their shirts from messy jobs

Paper grocery sacks that have been cut open and laid flat can be used for:

Wrapping paper

Place mats 

Paper to spread out and top with paper towels when cooking to keep the counter clean

Art paper

Craft paper

This is only a very short list of all the uses for these types of things–I’m sure many of you can think of a large variety of other things that saving these supplies would be good for to add to your own list.  And there are many sites and blogs that also have suggestions.  So go for it, and happy recycling!

Related articles

• Alexa’s infamous folded plastic bag (lifehacksbylex.wordpress.com)
• A quick wrap up (ilovegifting.me)
• Craft Recycled: 5 Projects from Fused Plastic Bags (greenupgrader.com)

Homemade Liquid Hand Soap

Tags

DIY soap, homemade, homemade soap, Soap

There are only about a million posts about how to make your own liquid hand soap, and most of them have the same two reasons for posting about it:

1. It is cost-effective

2. It is really easy

So here’s the long and the short of it–it’s hard to mess up making your own homemade liquid hand soap.  And, if you try it and it doesn’t turn out like you want it, you can still use it and try again later because you’re not out that much money.  

So, here’s the method I use, and it can easily be adapted to your preferences and needs.

You will need:

grater

big spoon

big saucepan or pot

whisk

1 standard 4 oz bar of soap (please read the update below)

12 cups of water (please read the update below)

2 Tbs liquid glycerin

I found glycerin on the same isle as Bandaids  in the Health and Beauty section of Walmart.

Update: When I made this soap for this post, I did it a little differently than I had done it in times past.  I formerly had used Ivory bar soap or some other easily rinsable type of bar soap, and this time I used an antiperspirant soap (Dial maybe) of some sort.  Also, I formerly had used about 15 cups of water, but found that my soap turned out a little thinner than I like it, so I lessened the amount of water this time around to get the consistency I wanted.

That said, one or the other of these changes (or both) made this soap to be gradually sink-clogging over time.  I never had this problem when I made this hand soap with more water and low-residue bar soap, so I wanted to be sure to add this caution to other soap makers.  To be sure your homemade liquid soap will not build up in your drain, add about 2-3 more cups of water to the above recipe, and make sure the bar of soap you use is one that is low-residue.  That should solve any problems!  Your soap will be a thinner consistency, but will work just as well and will not build up in your drains.  Now, back to the post….

Directions:

Put water in a pan and heat to almost boiling.  

While you are waiting on the water, grate the bar of soap and set aside.

When the water is ready, dump the grated soap in and stir.

Try not to let the water boil; you’re just trying to melt the soap particles.

After the soap is melted, remove from heat and add glycerin.

Stir well and allow to cool.  Let soap sit at least four hours, or overnight–it will thicken as it sits, and can take awhile before it does, so try not to get impatient.

When it is thickened and cool, use a whisk to blend it together.

Some posts recommend using a mixer to blend the soap, and that is something you can try.  I have never done that, but it may work just as well.

This is also a good time to add anything you want to the soap such as color and scented oils.  It doesn’t take much of either, so add it carefully.

After the soap is blended well, use a cup to dip the soap out of the pot and transfer it to the container you want to keep it in.  I use a gallon jug that was formerly full of a punch drink.  I washed it out really well and it has made a good soap container.  

Use a funnel and a cup to fill the container if it has a narrow opening–this soap may set up thick, and tend to all go in the bottle at once if you try to pour it directly from the pot.

The soap is now ready to transfer into the smaller hand soap dispensers.  I use a funnel for that as well, and fill them a little more than 3/4 of the way to the top, leaving a gap so that it doesn’t overflow when you put the pump top back on the dispenser.

Here is the finished product!  Mine turns out thick, but I have read that it depends on the type of bar soap you use.  I used a 4 oz bar of Dial I already had for this, but any bar of soap will do.  Adjust accordingly if there is a difference in ounces, and more or less glycerin will change the consistency as well (glycerin tends to be a thickener).  Your soap may turn out thinner or thicker than mine, depending on these variables, but there is no wrong way to make it!  If it turns out too thick or thin, use more or less water next time.

This soap does not create much in the way of suds.  Just like HE laundry soap (low suds but clean and good-smelling results), it delivers what it needs to.  And, the best part, it costs very little!  Two tablespoons of glycerin and a bar of soap are usually the only things that you will have to buy.  

Try this sometime and enjoy experimenting with it–there is little waste.  You can use the batches that don’t turn out–soap is soap, so if it is too thick or thin, it is still usable.  Just adjust how you make it next time around.  I encourage you to have fun with it!

Related articles

• Here’s a Secret.. !!Use GLYCERIN!! (stylizedcosmo.wordpress.com)
• Making liquid soap (wolffork.wordpress.com)
• Liquid Laundry Detergent 2 (adayinthelifeonapositivenote.wordpress.com)
• Homemade Natural Body Wash – Liquid Castile Soap (twinglemom.wordpress.com)

Fall Color That Lasts

Tags

crafts, fall, leaves, preserving leaves

As Pinterest becomes more and more popular with each passing day, we’re exposed to new and wonderful ideas for Fall decorating.  I love Fall colors, and always hate it when the beautiful leaves I pick up while going for a walk finally turn crisp and brown and fall to pieces.

  But, behold!  A wonderful lady, Nadja, came up with a great way to preserve the color: dipping them in wax!  Martha Stewart had a page on her site about this as well, so there is lots of information out there about how to do this.  I decided to try it myself, since I wanted to do a lot of Fall decorating.

  So, here is my leaf experience–it turned out well, and in another post I’ll have pictures of what I did with the results.

  I used:

• Wax (I just used an old three-wick candle that had “sprung a leak”)
• Double boiler or vegetable steamer, whatever gets the container the wax is in off of the direct heat
• Waxed paper
• Various colorful leaves with stems (your fingers will thank you)
• Coffee can, optional if you don’t want wax in your good saucepan

  The coffee can I used was fairly small, so I cut my candle into chunks that would fit in the can.  The can was set into the steamer basket which was placed inside a saucepan with water that was boiling over medium/low heat.  It’s important that the wax melt slowly.

  Since this was the first time I had tried waxing leaves, I was anxious to get started, so my wax wasn’t even totally melted before I began dipping! 

  Hold the leaf over the melted wax for a bit to allow the excess to drip off.

  Lay them out on waxed paper to let them dry.

  At first I had tried pressing them for a bit to make them flat, which is good if you want to hang them in a mobile or put them in a frame with a glass front.  Since I wanted to use these in arrangements, I thought they would look more natural if left in the shape I had found them in.

  My City Boy and I went for a walk on a beautiful Fall sunny day and strolled through a cemetary where some groundskeepers were working.  There were small snippets of branches with leaves on them, and we picked several of them up and brought them home.  I wanted to preserve them, too, so I tried my hand at dipping leaves while still on the branches. 

  Starting out, I dipped each leaf one at a time, which turned out well, but was not easy.  Many times more than one leaf ends up getting in the wax at a time, and you end up having to try and hold them apart while they are dripping so they don’t get waxed together and dry that way. 

  Since dipping leaves one at a time proved rather labor-intensive, I began dipping whole sections of 3-6 leaves with good results.  I was surprised they didn’t stick together like I thought they would, and just involved a nudge here and there to seperate them.

  The branches were put on the waxed paper as shown in the first photograph at the top of this post, and they dried very nicely.

  Here is the end result!  They will be enjoyed far longer than they would have without the wax treatment.

  Coming in a post soon I will have pictures of the arrangements I used these leaves in.  There are so many ways you can use these!  If you decide to wax some of your own Fall findings, let us know how it turned out for you!