What I do with my day off ...

It's my day off work and my goal was to make my own liquid hand soap. I've had this on my to-do list for a few weeks now after seeing the idea on pinterest:

www.familyoffarmers.blogspot.com/2011/11/liquid-hand-soap-diy.html

So I gathered my supplies:

Liquid glycerin (finally found this at Wal-Mart)
3 3oz bars of Ivory soap (you can use any soap, you just want 8-9 oz)
A gallon of water

a large kettle (to hold the gallon of water)
my Kitchen Aid w/ shredder attachment (you can use a regular cheese grater, but I didn't want an arm workout today)

This is so simple to make. Shred/grate the cheese into the large kettle

add 1 gallon (16 cups water if you have 8 oz of soap, 18 cups if you have 9 oz like I did), and add 2 Tbls liquid glycerin (I used a little extra since I had 9 oz of soap). Place on stove on medium heat. Heat and stir until soap melts. It'll look something like this:

Now let that sit for 10-12 hours and I'm told it should become gel-like in texture and ready to be poured into containers. 

While I was making soap, I decided to mix up some laundry detergent as well. I have yet to try this but I've had good success with my own dishwasher detergent, so I decided to try this as well.

I mixed together 25 oz of borax, 25 oz of Arm & Hammer baking soda, 18 oz Arm & Hammer washing soda, and 1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap, shredded, same as I shredded the Ivory soap. Mix it all together, store, and use 1 Tbls per load or so I'm told. I got this recipe also from pinterest, here 

www.beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/2010/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html 

The dishwasher detergent I'm using is from here in case you're interested in that too: www.frugallygreen.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-make-your-own-dishwasher.html

I'll share with you one other recent item I've done, much more in the crafty realm than soaps. I've been wanting an earring holder for a while, a pretty one to be exact. So after seeing many different ideas on pinterest, I came up with my own with things I already had.

I removed the glass and back from a frame and used hot glue to glue in a piece of lace. I'm just thrilled with how it turned out and love this little piece of prettiness now hanging in our bedroom. I can't wait to choose a pair of earrings off of it every morning.

So that's how I've spent my day off - well some of it anyway. I also had a delightful lunch with my Dad, the first since I got married in September and got my car inspected (check that off the to do list).