i made soap - for real!

well, i guess i've gotten over my super-sucky-birthday-party-pout. to those few lovely, wonderful, amazing souls who shared the evening with us - THANK YOU. had you not showed up (like the other 38 people) i probably would have jumped off a bridge. my amazing sweet hubby is taking me out this weekend for my REAL birthday :-) glad to have him be my super, special date.

exiting the pouty platform....

a few weeks ago i freaking made soap. laundry soap anyhow. and i want to share my experience.

*** awesome, my pics aren't loading - i'll fill you in with some random google images, this should be fun***

so i found my recipe on pinterest. ahhh, sweet, happy pinterest. i didn't even know you could make your own laundry soap, well unless you were laura ingles or a zombie apocalypse had occured. but there it was, a recipe for it and it said you could make a gallon for like $1! we're straight up poor these days (no lie) and so i thought, sweet - i'll save us some non-existenet dollar dollar bills (yo) and make up some fabulous laundry goo.

step one - procure some supplies. my recipe called for a bar of soap (i used a bar of that yellow laundry soap - fells napatha or something like that), a box of borax powder and a box of washing soda (NOT to be confused with baking soda). you'll need a large pot that you will only be using for NON-FOOD activities, so i hustled over to wally world and got a cheap pot. you'll also need a long spoon, a cheap cheese grater and container of some sort to store your soap in (i used a gallon pitcher sorta thingy with a snap on lid)

step two - grate you soap (like cheese, but not). my recipe called for a whole bar (but makes 2 gallons) so i just grated half the bar and saved the rest for later. then you put it in a gallon (minus a couple of cups, but save these) of water and cook on low till all the soap is disolved. then you mix in some borax and some soda, boil, turn off the heat and let it cool. pour it into your chosen container. note - it would be VERY helpful to have funnel for this task. i couldn't find one, so we cut the bottom off a water bottle and used that. then it'll keep cooling. and it'll get thick. like REALLY thick. like, holy hell, what did i just do - i made a gallon sized bar of soap. enlist the help of a hunky man (or work some aggression out and do it yo-self) and shake, shake, shake it... it'll still be sorta jelly like, but at least you can get it to pour out of the container into your washer.

step three - use the darn stuff. it works! i was skeptical so i tried my first batch on some toxic peices. ie - bub's gym clothes and a washcloth nuggie pooped on in the tub. they came out clean as a bean. my one and only complaint is that it doesn't smell as yummy as our normal gain or tide, but i think the next batch i'll figure out a way to add some sort of fragrence. i know i could have chosen to use a yummy smelling soap, but the bar of laundry soap made sense to me to use. practicality over smellly-goodness won out.

i googled "super clean clothes" and this is what appeared. you. are. welcome :-)

and there you have it. minus the initial cost of the supplies, we figured each gallon costs really only about $1. it works and it makes me feel like i'm doing something happy and good for mother nature AND my sweet hubby's wallet while i loaf around in nursing school, not working. i'd find a recipe that looks like a delight to you and give it a whirl!


PS - my spellcheck button thingy isn't working either. enjoy all the errors my friends.

lesson learned...

i'd like everyone to click on over to my sweet and intelligent friend shannon's blog. she wrote this post and i'm totally referring to it today. just read it.

shannon's awesome etiquette lesson

ps - while you're reading this you should read some more. miss shannon's blog is a delight!!

ahhhhhh

whew, am i sighing a huge breath of relief. i passed a math test today in class that would determine if i could even continue on in the program. it was the first day of the new semester and they lay this massive scary test on us - nice, huh? well, i passed and that's that. thank goodness, now i can look ahead to the next little slice of insanity.

how the frap is it 2012? where'd 2011 go? i made some fun resolutions. i can't remember them all right now and i'm too lazy to get up and grab my journal... i know one of them was the standard lose weight. this is nothing new for me, but seriously, SERIOUSLY guys, something has to change. i gained like five pounds b/t thanksgiving and christmas. i think that might have something to do with the 8 pounds of homemade cookies i gobbled up when i was visiting the fam? either way, for real - the pudge must budge. nothing seems to work with me - so i'm going with teeny tiny baby steps. step one - get my ass to the gym three times a week. for real. no excuses. i made it yesterday. today and tomorrow and thursday are nutty with long days at school. i will go friday and saturday. i will. end of story.

another new year's resolution was to watch all the movies everyone always shuns me for NOT seeing. for example, i've never seen the original star wars or goonies or west side story, just to name a few. bub and i are going to try to make friday nights our little date night in. after nuggie has gone to bed we'll break out a bottle of wine and watch a weird old movie that everyone makes such a fuss over. this last friday we watched North - with elijah wood. it was cute i guess... i'd rather watch you've got mail.

i need some ideas people... since we very unexpectadly ended up going to oregon for christmas, i have a HUGE ham in my freezer and a family sized thingy of pillsbury gingerbread cookie dough in my fridge. what do i do with these things? i can cook up the ham, but i don't want to eat it for the next two weeks. anyone wanna share with me? any idea of what to do with like 8 pounds of ham? and the cookie dough. i can't bake it all up - i'll eat it and that won't help me. maybe i'll make gingerbread valentines cookies? is that a thing? it doesn't sound like a thing. ugh.