Piano Recital

So last weekend, I had my first piano recital.  I can't believe how well everyone did!  Seriously, my excitement for them rivaled their parents.  They were all dressed so nice and their hair was done especially nice. I could tell most of them were just a little nervous.  But they all did wonderful!

I had decided to play several months ago. I feel like if I'm going to make them do it I have to, too.  So I picked a challenging piece and started practicing it. I practiced and practiced, but apparently not enough. About a week before I realized it wasn't going to be ready.  I started freaking out trying to decide what to do. Should I still play, should I not, should I just do it and flub everything?  Jake thought I should play this song as an ice breaker.  I practiced it, but didn't feel 100% comfortable with it.  Who knows what the mood is going to be when we get there.  So at the last minute I chickened out and fell to a song from several years ago in my music collection.  I was so undecided I didn't even put my name on the program.  But it's good for me to play, right? I did fine.  Here's the program:

Jake did so good, no? I think it's purdy. 

I only had one little guy, who's only been with me for about a month, get too scared to play.  The rest of them jumped right up to play.  I forgot to have them bow.  Next time. 

I was only planning on doing a recital once a year, but most of the parents want to do it twice a year to give the kids lots of practice playing in front of people. I don't know if my nerves can handle twice a year. We'll see. There's also a festival being organized for the spring, so that will be good!

But the worst thing about it was that I forgot my camera. So I don't have any pictures. Sad.

Laundry Detergent

 In my continuing effort to be frugal and stuff, I have made my first attempt at laundry detergent.  And I must say, I am very pleased with how it turned out.  I've seen several recipes, but I used one from my friend Amber. And it's super easy. The full recipe is at the bottom.

The three ingredients you will need (plus water):

You can get all of this on the laundry aisle of WalMart.

 So take the bar soap and dissolve it in 4-6 Cups of boiling water.  Once again, I was lazy. And I think I have carpal tunnel. Anyway, it would dissolve a lot faster the smaller you can get the pieces.  Mine took about 15 minutes.

Shredding the FelsNaptha soap.

When it's dissolved, add it to a five-gallon bucket, with your borax and washing soda, fill the bucket with water, and stir.  You can also add some essential oil to the mix for fragrance.  I looked at some and for the price, I decided not to, simply to keep the price down. And honestly, I don't mind the smell. It smells clean. 

The recipe said to stir it the next morning, but I forgot. So a few days later when I remembered to do it, I had to break up some serious gelatinous blobs. So now it's a little chunky. 

When I first filled up my bucket, it was just to the top of my spoon.  I've been using it for about a month.  With an average of four loads of laundry a week, that's around 16 loads, an inch of detergent used. The recipe said to use about a half cup per load.  I've been using the cup from the last bottle of detergent I bought. I think it's pretty close to a half cup.  I haven't actually measured it. I estimate I will get about 250 loads out of my five gallon bucket.

 Here's the price breakdown on Amazon: 

• 76 oz Borax- $7.98
• FelsNaptha Laundry Bar Soap- $3.91
• 55 oz Washing Soda-$5.99

• Total-  $17.98

 Okay, I bought all of my stuff at Walmart but couldn't remember exactly how much they were, but I know do know all of it was cheaper than Amazon. This is just a rough estimate. 

Compare that to this detergent at WalMart, very similar to what we might buy. 150oz for $18 and 90 loads.  This might sound pretty close to cost, but I still have nearly full boxes of Borax and Soda to use. So my initial batch was a little more, but the next 10 buckets that I make will only cost $2 for the bar of soap.  $2 for 200+ loads of laundry, I think YES!

So here's what I like  this soap.  It seriously gets our laundry cleaner. We only have so many bath towels, and after a while they start to get a funky smell.  Before this, I was adding vinegar to our towels every load and it was helping. But really I don't want to do that because I detest vinegar.  After the first time washing them with the detergent, I noticed they smelled so good, and felt cleaner.  

It gets our workout clothes cleaner.  Did I just hear a collective gasp at the word workout come out of my mouth? It's true. Stay tuned.  Anyway, they stink.  Even after washing them with an extra amount of regular detergent on hot, they were still a little fresh. As in they still stunk. Not exaggerating, after one wash, I was seriously happy.  It got that workout buildup out. Ya know the stuff that builds up in the pits? Maybe we're the only ones,  because we're such sweaters.  Haha, not that kind of sweater. 

Some of our older clothes have deodorant build up on them.  I've already noticed that it's started coming out of some of those shirts that've been washed.  I feel like it's extended the life of our clothes. 

Now that I'm looking back and thinking about it, I can't believe how bad we needed this. You should totally try it!  Here's the recipe from Amber:

Laundry Soap Recipe
1 bar Felsnaptha soap
1 cup borax
1 cup of Arm & hammer Washing Soda

Grate the Felsnaptha bar of soap and melt it on the stove with 4 cups of water.
Fill a 5 gallon bucket with water 1/2 full - mix in the borax and the arm & hammer baking soda and then mix well. Add the melted soap.Stir and then fill the rest of the bucket full of water, stir and let it sit over night. Mix again in the morning.

There is not much of a smell to it so if you have a essential oil that you like alot add 36 drops. i don't mind the smell of the soap but I do use dryer sheets that adds what I like.

Add 1/4-1/2 cup if you have a top loading washer or Add 1/8-1/4 cup if you have a front loading washer.

Friends

 This past weekend, my dear friend Lindsey got married. Our little group of high school friends have always had a tradition of getting together for food when another gets married. It's the one sad thing about getting married. You miss the friend get together. Boo. Anyway, I was perusing some pictures and found an pair that were very similar.  Check it:

Megan, Me, Jenn, Kira, Lindsey

 This first picture was taken eight or nine, maybe ten years ago at a get together. Look how little we were!

Fast forward to this weekend.

Megan, Jenn, Me, Kira

Breakfast at Smitty's.

I was comparing these two pictures. There are definitely similarities. We are all still ourselves. We still have our own styles and personalities. But I can't help but look at this picture and think how happy we all look.  The smiles are bigger! Between the four of us, there's seven kids and four good and happy and loving husbands.  We are all so happy!

I love having a group of friends that I have known forever. I love the familiarity of getting together and picking up where we left off years earlier. It's just nice.

Pringles

Yesterday, when I was at Smith's, there was a sale.  Nothing gets me going as much as getting a great deal on something that's usually overpriced. 

Enter:

Pringles

Remember when you were in high school and you used to be able to buy a can for a dollar and eat it for lunch? Then, when everything else went up in price, so did the cost of Pringles.  What used to be a dollar is now $2.50.  It totally blows. 

I'm kind of stingy. I HATE paying that much for something that I can remember being so cheap. It's the same with gas. I don't think I'll ever get over it. 

So I bought two of them, because they were $1.25. Not a dollar, but close. I got a Sour Cream & Onion, and an Original.  Because they're delicious.

Here's some finger exercises you can do to condition yourself for better grasping of the crisps, care of the Pringles Blog:

Today, at lunch, I was going to eat some. I opened the pantry, and there, both cans stared at me. Which do I want? How do I make a decision like that? Both are good. Neither is bad. Both were full. Neither are gross. So I made my decision the same way I make all of my most important life decisions. I relied on a movie to tell me my answer.

Hello Tad Hamilton:

I searched and searched and searched for the appropriate clip, but couldn't find it. So just start watching at 6:54. You can also follow along the script if you don't want to watch it.

Pete: Congratulations. You've now eaten your own body weight in Pringles.

Kathy: What's your favorite Pringle? Sour Cream & Onion? Or Original?

Rosie: Well. The Sour Cream & Onion has a very strong taste. So if you're eating a small amount, say half a can, you want that strength.  But if you're eating much more than that, you'll want the Original. It's a cleaner flavor.

Pete: Wait until you discover Barbeque flavor. You'll finally become a woman!

So, as I wasn't going to be eating very many, only a third of a can (not really though, just a couple. Not in high school anymore), I chose the Sour Cream & Onion. I wasn't disappointed.

And just because they're funny, here's some pictures I found when I Googled Pringles.

I hope this is their parade car...

Props for creativity!

Do yo think he tasted like Sour Cream & Onion when he came out?

I find him creepy...

Oh no! How will she ever be able to get the ring!

In case you ever wanted to know the exact measurements...

I would die if I found a Pringles machine! Just die.

Can anyone tell me what flavor this is? Noodle soup perhaps?

PS- I post about Pringles because there is nothing going on that is worth posting about. 

The End

Dirty Blanket

Did you know that your pet has a favorite blanket? I didn't. I do now. 

It began several years ago when somebody gave us a Spongebob throw blanket. We used it for a while, then it slowly began to be used for Porkchop.  

This picture is about five years ago. He likes to be covered with a blanket while he sleeps on the couch.  So do I. 

Fast forward five years to now. To keep the amount of cat hair on the bed to a minimum, we put Spongebob on the bed.  Porkchop sleeps on it every night. When it gets cold, I fold it in half over him like a little cat burrito and he sleeps contently. 

So yesterday, he was eating his lunch. He was starved so he was eating really fast. Then I had a piano kid come and he freaked out, so he went running to his safety of on the bed. Nothing can get him on the bed. Anyway, later in the afternoon I went in and he had thrown up on the blanket because he had eaten too fast. Gross. Gag. I hate you, Cat. So I cleaned it up and threw the blanket into the dirty basket.

It's bedtime now. And Spongebob isn't on the bed.  A certain cat is refusing to go to bed.  He walks up and down on the footboard. He is refusing to even step a FOOT on the  brown or green blankets that are on the bed. He is so stupid tired and whiny. Just GO TO SLEEP!  So I go and get a different blanket that he was JUST laying on an hour ago. He refuses to step a foot on it. Pick him up and throw him on the bed. He jumps down and runs away. What a turd!  Whatever. Do what you want cat.

An hour and a half later, he is still sitting next to the bed screaming at me.  So I go to the laundry basket, pull the gross blanket out, fold it over so that puke residue (it wasn't that bad, a little crust, no stink) doesn't get on my blankets, and I put it on the bed.  He's watching me. As soon as I get back in bed he jumps up. Within five minutes he out cold. And there I lay. 

So this morning I went in to take a picture of him all curled up in HIS blanket. This is what I found.

Not on his blanket.

Liquid Hand Soap

So  it seems like today is the first day of school in most towns.  Somehow I found myself on a FB page for BYUI class of 2015. I gotta say, I want to go to school!  I love school shopping! I love pencils and paper and scissors and pens and paper clips and pretty much every school supply. So does Jake.  Which means sometimes we spend a lot of time on the pen aisle at Staples. Good times!

Okay, on to my current project!  In my efforts to be frugal and self sufficient and to earn my keep around here, I made hand soap. It was an interesting process.  My first batch didn't turn out. Even a little bit. But my second batch is great! So here's my process (Oh yeah, this is where I got the recipe):

First I started with a regular ol' bar of soap.

I used a vegetable peeler to peel and shred it down to bits.

Then add lots of water.

Then you add some Glycerin. This bottle was about $9. I got it at the Nature Store (?) in Rexburg. I'm betting any nature or whole food store wood have it. I only used a tablespoon of it, so it should last til just about forever. See my thumb in the picture to give it scale?  It's a good size bottle.

Then you heat it on the stove until your soap is dissolved in the water.  

Easy Shmeazy!

 And here is a picture of Porkchop. Somehow he was in the middle of all of these pictures on the camera. Isn't he cute?

Okay, so this batch didn't work. After reading through the comments on her original post, I determined it was because the Olay Body Bar is a moisturizing bar with very little actual soap in it. And lots of moisture. Er, something. Anyway. It turned out just like water. Or skim milk. Which to some people is water.  So I chucked it. I was  a little sad I had failed. But I tarried on to round two!

 Enter Dial. 

I got two of these bars at Kings in Afton. Did you know there still were Kings? I love that store. They have awesome toys. And clothes.  

Instead of using my vegetable peeler on this guy, I just attacked it with a knife.  Towards the end, I got really impatient, so there's lots of bigger chunks. They took a while longer to dissolve. So I would suggest taking your time to make sure they're small. So here's my cup of soap flakes.

I was worried about the smell of soap being too strong. So I threw in the remaining 1/4-1/2 cup of the Olay Body Bar flakes, which smelled really good.  I figured they didn't do anything helpful in the last batch, so they probably wouldn't do anything harmful in this batch. And  it was fine.   After adding the glycerin and water (I only used 9 Cups the second time), I cooked it forever til the soap dissolved.   It was still pretty thin. Some of the commenters on the original post said they let theirs sit overnight and it thickened. So I left it on the stove in the pot overnight to cool and thicken.  When I came out this morning, it was the consistency of snot. Bigger chunks and runny and gross. Seriously. So I got the hand mixer out  and mixed until it was a consistent texture.  I added about 10 drops of orange essential oil, but the orange still wasn't strong enough for me. I was a little worried because the oil is kind of expensive. So I ended up zesting an entire orange into the pot.  It smelled quite nice!

So then I funneled it into containers til I need it. I underestimated how much it would make.  About 130 ounces. Eek! That's a lot!  But I did use it, and I can seriously and honestly say that my hands are so soft and smooth, it's crazy. Usually soap dries them out so quick. But I think that glycerin is awesome!

My next project? Homemade laundry detergent!

Here's the recipe copied directly from Savvy Housekeeper.

Ingredients:

1 c soap flakes 10 c water 1 Tbs glycerin

Equipment:

Cheese grater A large pot Measuring cup and spoons A spatula for stirring A soap container with a hand pump A container to hold excess soap Funnel

Directions:
First, grate the soap. Get out your cheese grater, grab the soap, and get grating. I found this to be surprisingly easy, although the soap particles tend to float in the air as you grate. You can wear a mask to avoid breathing it in. When you’re done, the soap flakes look like grated Parmesan.

One bar of soap yielded a little over 1.5 cups of flakes. The recipe only uses one cup of soap flakes, so I put the remaining soap in a jar for later use.
In a large pot, combine 1 cup soap flakes, 10 cups water, and 1 Tbs glycerin. Turn on medium-low heat and stir until the soap dissolves. This happens fast, about a minute or two.
Let the soap cool completely, then pour into the containers using the funnel. That’s all there is to it!

Gift Cards

Sometimes giving gifts is so hard. Especially for parents. Like they really need anything, right??

So we resort to gift cards. 

Gift cards are great, and can be great to give and get. But it's so sad and boring to just hand somebody an envelope. I love getting something I can open.

Enter Pinterest and The Creative Mama.  

I love Pinterest. I've found some awesome ideas (stay tuned for my homemade soap) and check daily to see what else people have come up with!

So here's how to package your gift cards.

They're like little snow globes! Love it!

Here's how it goes.

Get a glass jar. She used a mason jar, I used a different jar. I can't tell you that they may or may not have been from fudge. Then you would judge me. So I won't tell you that.

Start by hot gluing the card to the bottom of the lid.

This picture kinda makes my hand look like a claw. 

Then take a pack of confetti. Creative Mama used glitter. The confetti was cheaper, so it won.

 Put the amount you want into the jar.

Fill it all the way to the brim of the jar with water. 

It was like... magic!

(name that movie!)

Some of the stars gobbed together with little air bubbles, but it still looked cool.

I think they turned out really cute. Jake's mom laughed, but I think she liked it. I'm not sure Jake is convinced that it was a good idea. 

I think they're awesome!

A word of caution. We still have a little while before giving the Olive Garden one away.  The confetti may have colored the water purpley/pink. So if you don't want colored water, don't do it til you plan on giving it.

Weird??

I rode my bike to the grocery store today, and it was kinda toasty out. So I stopped at the gas station for some refreshing something. I was feeling fruity, and this was the only thing they had.

 

I like jolly ranchers, and it was hot.

Here's my popsicle.

I couldn't taste the lemon or apple that much, and the watermelon was yummy. It had kind of a funny texture and was pretty soft. But it was tasty. I highly recommend it!

And the cat took the plastic stick from me. I don't want it back.

Wall Flowers

 For my birthday, I got these great wallflowers that you put on your wall. We got them at Bed Bath & Beyond.  I finally got around to putting them up. And they're great! Mostly.

Here's the box they come in, 25 of each size. 

They come with these handy dandy little pushpins that you hook them to the wall with.

The back with the connector thingy.  

I hope your wall is softer than mine. I had to use a knife to push them in. 

First I laid out my plan in little push pins.

 Then I stuck the flowers on.

Then I rearranged them about forty times.

 I thought they'd look better in the dark.

 I'm just not sure. What do you think? Here are the googled pictures I found. Would that somehow look better? I'm just not sure.

Is it weird to have them in a big lump like that?

A Painted House

 We jumped in with one of our big summer projects, staining our house. It needed it something fierce. I don't think it had been done since it was built, many years ago. 

We had this weird rectangle over the garage. We aren't entirely sure what it was from. I think it was too big to be a basketball hoop. I think it was the first house in our subdivision, so they put up a banner of some sort. But we don't know. Either way, it was there and annoyed us.

See the weird rectangle?

It was just kind of sad and faded.

But look how the lawn's starting to come in!

So here are the afters. I think it turned out really well.

You can still sort of see the rectangle, turns out the textures were different from weathering different.

There it is, so pretty!  Now we just need some bushes and some more trees.

And we're staring to get our dirt. After the sprinklers get put it, we'll put it down and perhaps actually get a yard!

Four little piles of dirt.