Do It Yourself Laundry Soap

I'll admit, doing laundry is not one of those chores that gets me overly excited. Maybe if I had a laundry room like one of these I'd reconsider that...(oh someday, someday!)

{Image source unknown}

{Image source unknown}

{Hampton Design}

But when an opportunity arises that not only makes doing laundry cheaper but also more luxurious, I'll gladly jump on the bandwagon! I recently discovered the Duggar recipe for making your own laundry soap. It's been around for a while and I'm sure many of you are leagues ahead of me, but you're welcome to come along for the ride anyways.

Supposedly, their laundry soap recipe not only works just as good as the leading brands, it only costs around $2 for a 40-load (approx.) recipe. I love finding ways to save money so I had to try this out for myself. They have directions for a liquid laundry soap recipe, but I live in a small apartment and don't really have anywhere to store 5-gallon buckets so I opted for the powdered recipe instead.

Powdered Laundry Detergent- Top load machine

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar (I replaced the Fels-Naptha bar for Ivory soap because 1. it's cheaper per bar 2. it doesn't give off quite as strong of a scent as Fels-Naptha does and 3. it's white)
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

-Grate soap or break into pieces and process in a food processor until powdered. Mix all ingredients. For light load, use 1 Tablespoon. For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 Tablespoons. Yields: 3 Cups detergent. (Approx. 40 loads)

First, I gathered the supplies needed. I've been making the powered laundry soap recipe (with Fels-Naptha) for a month now and had the Borax and Washing Soda already. I don't remember the exact cost for those, but the recipe ran at around $1.89 for 40 loads which was great! Today, I replaced the $1.25 per Fels-Naptha bar for a 10-pack of Ivory soap that came in at $4.49 (or 45 cents per bar!). I found all of the ingredients in the landry soap aisle. I also nabbed this 1 gallon apothecary jar for $12.79 from my local grocery store. If yours doesn't carry these, I believe I've seen some for cheap at Michaels, Ben Franklin, and Cost Plus World Market.

I grated the Ivory soap with a cheese grater and then mixed all the ingredients in a bowl to make sure they were evenly distributed before adding them to my jar.

I don't know what it is about these glass jars, but they make me really happy and I feel like royalty while doing laundry (err... I guess royalty would have maids?). And I love how it looks sitting next to my freshly painted laundry basket!

This 1 gallon jar holds 5 batches, or enough powdered soap to do approximately 200 loads of laundry! And the best part? This new 40-load recipe cost me only $1.09! Now that is a money saver!

Giveaway!

In celebration of my 50th post and my upcoming 1 year anniversary on Etsy (Sept 11th) I'm giving away a print!

Contemporary Birds 8x10 Print

This is one of my more popular 8x10 prints and I would love for you to win it! It comes signed on the back and will be protected in a cello sleeve with acid-free backing board (the watermark will not appear on your print, don't worry!)

There are three ways to enter
1. Comment on this post with the words "Tweet Tweet"
2. Become a follower and be sure to leave a separate comment saying that you did so. If you are already a follower just leave a separate comment and let me know!
3. Post this giveaway on your blog and leave a separate comment with a link to your blog post
Contest ends: Friday, September 11th at 11:59pm PDT
Be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win! This contest is open to everyone. The winner will be selected using random.org and will be announced on Saturday.

Hot or Cold?

I know many of you are not ready to think about winter, but it's hot days like we've been having that get me longing for that time of year when the air becomes crisp and chilly and you don't leave the house without a mug of hot cocoa and your warm snugly scarf. One of my favorite places to visit in the winter is the little town of Leavenworth, WA. It's completely magical with its Tudor-style shops, Christmas lights and a gorgeous backdrop of alpine hills. And what winter trip would be complete without a sleigh ride?

Image courtesy of Northwestguide

The shopping there is wonderful as well, with so many quaint shops full of unique treasures. I love grabbing a piping hot cup of coffee from the Starbucks on the corner and walking from shop to shop in the soft snow. I've always made a day trip out of it, but in the future I'd love to stay for a weekend or longer at one of Leavenworth's many cozy hotels. I'd love to sit and sketch the various buildings and people. Perhaps even do some skiing? All I can say is that this town tugs at my heartstrings and I truly cannot wait to go back!

Image courtesy of WeAreHarris

Image courtesy of Planetware

With that said, I'd love to hear about some of the places dear to your heart! Where is one of your favorite places to go on vacation?

Sew Happy!

I finally have some time set aside today to try out my new-to-me sewing machine! We had to move a lot of furniture around in our apt in order to accommodate the sewing machine cabinet, but I'm really liking the changes (and the fact that I've cleared out a lot of clutter!) Our living room now feels a bit more complete. I'm now on the lookout for some picture frames to finish it off, but I can't decide if I want 11x14 or square. If you see any good deals that could sway my decision, let me know! I'll be posting pictures as soon as it's all finished.

And now for a little teaser of the fabrics I'll be using today...

Dining Room Inspiration

Our dining room is looking a little sad these days so I've turned to the internet for some inspiration. In the future I plan on repainting our dining table and chairs, sewing a new table runner and turning our hand-me-down cabinet we're using as a sideboard into something worth looking at. I find that looking at images of beautiful spaces really helps me to get my own creative juices flowing, so let's cut right to the chase!

Image courtesy of Living Better Together

Image courtesy of Traditional Home and Centsational Girl

Image courtesy of Traditional Home

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Image courtesy of MyHomeIdeas.com

Image courtesy of MyHomeIdeas.com

Image courtesy of Steven Miller on HGTV.com

Image courtesy of House and Home

Image courtesy of Design Inc

Image courtesy of Decorpad

Image courtesy of Decorpad

Image courtesy of Decorpad

Image courtesy of Decorpad

Image courtesy of Darryl Carter

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Image courtesy of House Beautiful and Centsational Girl

New Print Sizes

Hirondelle Rustique is happy to announce new 11x14 print sizes!

Blog Love

Just wanted to pop in and say hi and share a couple of my favorite blogs with you. If you don't have these in your reader yet, you should definitely add them! These blogs are actually from a fellow blogger/nestie friend, Roeshel: The DIY Showoff and Evangeline's Vine. Roeshel has been such an inspiration to me and has quite a knack for decorating (her house is just lovely, as you can see in her blog Evangeline's Vine). She has kindly started the DIY Showoff as a way for readers to submit their DIY projects for all the world to see (she even has hers there too, check out her awesome barn patio makeover!). It's full of helpful advice and stunning rooms. If you have a project you'd like to submit, head on over!


I also wanted to say a special thank you to Roeshel for her kind words of encouragement over the last few months, they have definitely been appreciated. So Thank You Roeshel! I'm looking forward to your future posts!

If you have any favorite blogs you'd like to share, post 'em here! I'm always looking for new blogs to check out (even your own!).