Happy Birthday Pop!

We'll the hubs had another birthday! I was looking back and I can't believe how much he has grown! :)
Sadly, this was the first year that I didn't make him his favorite German Chocolate Cake. I was just not in the baking mood.

Yum! Pop!!

 I did steal this cute idea for his gift. A loves to study and drink pop. It's like his energy booster! I thought getting them in all different shapes and styles was super cute! I would have changed the root beer phrase to " I'm always Root-in' for you!" So, they are all about him! But either way check them out on her page, stinkin' cute!

Pinnin' Projects: ABC Magnets & Prayer Pail!!

Both of these I spied off of pintrest.. My ABC Pin doesn't have a link with it, but this is the link to the pail idea!

Our ABC Magnet Match!

Yes, this is so easy, and so fun and someone who is obsessed with these little crystal stones on magnets.. this was right up my ally. I've sent out our family pic on them, and will soon have business cards on them.. yes, obsessed! And I love them!

So, I just mod-podged cute (maybe too girly) paper to the back of my stone and hot glued a magnet disk. I made two sets! An Upper Case and a Lower Case set. That way they can match, they can spell word with 2 of the same letters, and there is plenty for two boys to play with at the same time, in two pie pans! They can use them on the fridge, or in our case right now we have metal doors (AMAZING!). 

I like the pans because its just compact play!

ABC Letters in a Pan!

Matching Letter! Yes, That's mod-podge on my fingers..geez.

Our Prayer Pail !

Oh, I've been meaning to do something with this pail. We made this at MOPS like forever ago, and it just kept finding different uses or no use at all.. so when I saw this idea and knew how BIG of a family we have.. it was a must do! So easy, just tied on all this cute ribbon (which i don't own) onto a metal pail! EASY!!

Then, I mod podged different style paper on the Popsicle sticks. The Aunts and Uncles have the same style just in purple or blue, the girl cousins and boy cousins also same but in pink or blue, and then our family, and direct grandparents are in a different pattern. Friends and neighbors can be something else, but 50 something for now is great!

They are adorable, and my kids LOVE to pick some out and quickly pray for them. Then I try hard to mention their names throughout my personal daily prayers! <3 it!

Pray Pail!

I love that they have articles in front of them like Cousin, Brother, Aunt.. to help them realize how they are related to us. And I don't know about you, but cousins are friends, and friends are cousins.. just trying to straighten that all out!

FUN FUN!

Categorized my Scents!

It is always so nice when i can easily find and pick out kinds of scents I know my guests will have a nose for. I've been almost avoiding ever putting them into their categories, but decided it was a must do! I cannot wait to have my next party with my cute new pie tins!

My 7 Catergoies, I picked this cute paper, and was so lucky making them work with the catergoires!

Put a magnet on the back! Now, I won't have testers flying around everywhere (too bad), even in my tester bag from  the company they were flying all over the place :/

"Fairest of them ALL" A place for the FAVORITES COLLECTION!

SPA COLLECTION

"Kiss the Fror" ROMANCE COLLECTION

My treasure map for the SEVEN SEAS COLLECTION

"A touch of Magic" for my CAFE COLLECTION

"There once lived a handsome prince" for my SCENTSY MAN

"Once Upon A Time" for my SEASONAL COLLECTION

I'm sure this will fit nicely in my bag or box!

Be My Scentsy Hostess!! I can't wait!!

Kissin' My Bathroom

Oh Gosh, Like i said I was "trying" to fly with FlyLady.. feeling overwhelmed by the e-mails to the point of annoyance.. but maybe soon I will step back up to the challenge.

 My bathroom REALLY needed a tending to. Last week I finally gave it some love with a new curtain, and a slight make over.  I applied a Pintrest Re-Purpose idea and made these cute little jars! they've been a huge help at keeping my counter tops non-cluttered!

I wasn't using my dry beans, and the bucket wasn't even sealed.. I know tisk* tisk*. I spray painted them, and threw them into these jars! I also got myself a magnet board also shown on Pintrest! Much Better!

Spray Painted Beans & Baby Food Jars.. Organizing my Life.

Kissin' Our Laundry

In January I received this recipe from a friend. At the time I didn't know where it can from buton Pintrest I found some familiar pictures. I was interested in making my own laundry soap. Its funny because before I only bought $20 Tide once a month. My friend from down stairs told me she only spends $20 a month on all her families bathroom and washing needs. That is insane to me because I'm for sure way over $100. She uses Money Saving Mom for a lot and maybe one day I will learn.

We've always used Liquid laundry soap. It was going to be a harder transition I thought to use the SUPER SUPER simple dry laundry mix. I was afraid of clumpy yuck in my washer corners or in my clothes. Although it would be way less space to store a dry detergent.

I used what I had the first time I made this in January, 10 gallons and 6 months later, I've got clean clothes and one less shopping expense. I made a slight change to this batch, only because I LOVE even #'s. I think that even amounts Borax and Washing Soda will still work just fine. I'll update later if needed!

Our Liquid Lavender Laundry Soap

Ingredients

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

5 Gallon Bucket

Funnel 

Cheese Grater

10 Gallon Jugs

 1 Laundry Bar Soap

1/2 Cup Borax

1 Cup Arm & Hammer Super WASHING Soda

15-20 drops Lavender Essential Oil

**UPDATE: I USED 1 FALS NAPTHA, AND 1/2 IVORY, AND 27 OIL DROPS.. I REALLY LIKE THIS RATIO.. I'LL LET YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ONCE I'VE BEEN USING IT FOR A WHILE**

I wrote the Instructions on my designated 5 Gallon Bucket!

Step 2:  Melt Your Soap 

Grate your Soap!

 I use Ivory you can use Fals Naptha, which is so easy to find in your Laundry aisle.
Or any other Laundry Bar Soap you find! I had a bunch of Ivory bars, because the Ivory bars are smaller (or so they look) i use 1 1/2 bars. I like the way Ivory smells so that worked best for me.

   Add Soap and 4 cups Water to a sauce pan on  Low-Med heat. 

Constantly stir until you've melted all the soap! This is so important. I got impatient this time and hand to pick out some of the chunks I wouldn't let melt. No clumps allowed in Liquid Soap!! You can probably spot some of them in the pic below. Oops!

Step 3: Mix Ingredients Together! NO CLUMPS ALLOWED!

Add Hot Soap Mixture to 1/2 Full Bucket of HOT Water + 1/2 cup Borax, 1 cup Washing Soda

 Break up any dry chunks and make sure it all dissolves. The warm water makes all the difference!

After I make sure all the clumps are gone and the soap is mixed up great I add my Lavender Oil. Both Lavender and Tea Tree Oil have great anti bacterial agents. Adam always likes the Lavender scented laundry stuff so again, this works best for us! There are SO many amazing healing agents and great stuff in Lavender, I can't wait to learn more about it!

Step 4: Fill it Up and WAIT!

Fill up our bucket to the top with water and put a lid on it. Then let sit over night or for at least 8 hours if you make it in the morning! The soaps got to do it's thing!

Step 5: Squish!!!!

Oh, It's so much fun squishing!

Your soap is going to be all globby. You can mix it up with a spoon, or that cool mixer thing on the recipe link.. but I'm so hands-on, it was important to me to get my hands into it. Remember, these are pretty strong soaps.. so wash your hands, and arms quickly after. When you are mixing make sure you squish all those, ALL those globs up and make it smooth and bubbly again! This is your soapy concentrate!

Step 6: Fill Bottles Half and Half

With your funnel fill half soap and half water! Makes 10 gallons.

I use the Ozarka bottles for my soap. I also use them for my water storage. They are thick like a juice bottle, until milk jugs. They also stack!!! A great quality for small living spaces. They happen to be just little less at 1 gallon. So, when I measured 8 cups soap, I couldn't get 8 cups water. You can measure it straight out, or by looking!  The best thing about filling our bottles.. we get clean floors at the same time!

Silvery Swirl 

When I went a hair salon a few years back, they were showing my their shampoo for me to buy. One of her points were the shampoo had a silvery swirl in it.. and that is what we should look for in our soaps. I'm not sure why.. but I was happy to see this beautiful silvery swirl in my soap. It might come from the Ivory but I've never used the Fals Naptha or others bars in my detergent. Just remember bubbles separate and trap the dirt, and the silver swirl is something good!! :) Wow, that sounded professional.

Ten Gallons

Ten gallons fit compact into my laundry room very nicely.  Tighten your lids, dry your containers,a and store somewhere safe. Also- SHAKE BEFORE USE! Your  soap will simmer and you will clearly see the separation again like with the globs.. no worries.. with the smaller individual bottles it is easy to SHAKE IT OUT!!

I hope you love it too!! Also, you can try some of these tips!

Pre- Stain Remover

This is where I use it. I use my Fals- Naptha bar as a stain remover. I pre-treat my stains by running the bar under water and rubbing it on the stain! I've got little boys so we get tons of stains. If I can remember to treat them, I'd have to say this works just as good as any.

Fals Naptha or another Laundry Bar Soap

My Pre- Stain Remover

Fabric Softener

In the final rinse cycle, I sometimes toss a 1/2 cup of Vinegar into my wash. This helps it feel soft and helps with any mildew smells... especially with my towels! Try it one day!

Fabric Softener

Dryer Sheets

I use Layers by Scentsy Dryer Disks. They come 2 in a pack and each bar lasts 15 or more dries. They have static electricity properties, and right now they come in two scents: Coconut Lemon Grass and Quiver. Both fantastic! Get them here!! gloeng.scentsy.us

Nail It!

When my husband was really searching into what he wanted to study and what he was interested in his brother told him he needed to hammer a nail on the wall, and once he decides which path he wants to take keep going and don't let anything stop you. Anytime there is a rejection in life, a bad grade, or anything that could discourage him and his career path his is suppose to is to stick it on the nail, and forget about it.

I made this for him a few months back! If you look closely the bulls-eye has his nail in it! It's perfect and all since he wants to study Optometry! :) He decided to hang it on the wall, although I think it would work great on the desk if more things keep piling up! He has managed to not have much to stick on it.

In a couple months he will have one huge step down and accomplish several more steps just by the end of the year! Go A!! You're doing amazing! I'm excited for you, I love your enthusiasm, and I'm proud of what you've been able to accomplish so far!

Huge XoXo!!!

Kissin' Our Homemade Rainbow Play Dough!

We made some homemade play dough today! It was super easy, and really fun!We used this recipe from Musings From A SAHM. 

In a non-stick pot

Medium Heat

MIX 

1 C. Flour

< 1/3 C. Salt 

2 t. Cream of Tartar

ADD

1 c. Water

1 T. Vegetable Oil

STIR

COLOR

STIR

until done.

 At first I used a regular metal pot and it got way too hot before I even started. When I added my dry and wets, it hardened SO FAST I didn't have time to mix in the color while it was still in the wet stage! That is SO important! The blue was our first batch, and you can clearly see the white chunks. not cool!

Reminder #1- It's easier to use a NON-Stick pot!

Reminder #2- Watch the temp, it will heat up fast while you go so make sure its a low- med temp so you can keep it on track!

Reminder #3- Once you've mixed the dry with the wet, add the color!! It comes out richer that way!

My green batch turned out the best! When I poured it out on the table where my wax paper was it was still kind of gooey. I was afraid it was under-done. It turned out to be the softest and easiest to play with!

Reminder #4- Don't over cook!

The only ick I have about this, and maybe it is all homemade play dough, is while playing my hand get covered in uncomfortable SALT! For sure next time we make this we are going to down size the salt. I know it is necessarily but I think there was so much. Maybe soaking the salt in the water before adding it to heat will help but for us it didn't work out quiet right there!

Reminder #5- Control your Salt! reduce Salt.

Finally, storage. We use these shoe boxes to store tons of your textural play, so it worked for us.. but I love the baby food jars for on the go play! If it does dry out- water should help, maybe that will help my salt problem too!!

reminder #6- Keep in tight storage, if it dries out, add water or play with wet hands!

Teaching Baby to Crawl!!

Go and Get 'Em! :)

Good Gogglely

Take them to the Pool, Teach them how to swim!

Kisses to FlyLady

I've been shinning my sink with FlyLady. I especially love the Windex part!! I've tucked away all my soaps and cleaning stuff under neath, because I love it this way! She's right it is a gift in the morning!!

I've been trying my best to stay consisted, because if I let one day pass without doing my chores it gets out of control fast! I haven't done her 31 day challenge. I couldn't see everyday at the same time and knew i wouldn't be consistent and getting on every day to check the to-do list. I just jumped right in and did what I was on. That's really what she wants you to do anyways.

I signed up for her Big Tent email.. they were helpful at first. I love the Kelly missions, the kids missions, and a reminder for my daily duties. Sometimes I like to read a few of her thoughts or testimonials but it is just annoying getting 30 or so emails daily.. mostly trying to sell me her stuff. I bet her stuff is awesome and if I had them I would probably rant all day about them too.. but it is a little overwhelming. Maybe I can train myself to look at the assignments daily or even weekly (because they are posted) on her website.. www.flylady.net

Either way, I am gaining so new habits. If I get my but up, dressed with my shoes on, and actually do what I should. Through the past month of this, I've realized.. if I got paid for my job at Mommy, Inc. I would have been fired way long ago!