DIY Laundry Detergent

This DIY is a huge money saver and it's easy to make! It is a very simple recipe and is great for those with allergies or skin irritations because it's made with all natural ingredients. You can make a powder or liquid. I always make the powder because it's easier to make and store.

Here is everything you will need:

I wrote my recipe on the old yogurt container that I keep the laundry detergent in so that I know exactly what to do for the next batch.... but believe me, this stuff lasts a loooong time.

You will need to shred 2 bars of soap. Many recipes call for Fels-Naptha soap, found in the laundry detergent aisle, but really any old soap will do. My cheap ass got a great deal on a huge box of Ivory soap, so that's what I use.

*Tip- Buy a separate grater for your crafty projects. The cheap $1 variety works fine. You don't want your shredded cheese to have a slightly soapy taste :)

This is what the grated soap looks like. I like to separate my recipe into two yogurt containers during the prepping/mixing time to avoid a mess, but this recipe will fit into one yogurt container.

Borax is key in this recipe, aka sodium borate. It can be found in the laundry detergent aisle of most grocery stores. The brand I found is called 20 Mule Team.

Next up is Washing Soda, aka sodium carbonate. Common baking soda, aka sodium bicarbonate, cannot be substituted in this recipe. Like the other ingredients, it's easy to find in the laundry detergent aisle.

And here is the finished product. You could add a couple drops of essential oils to make it smell nice, but you really don't need it. Using homemade laundry detergent makes your clothes naturally clean, you'll forget about that artificial smelling laundry stuff that you used to use.

DIY Laundry Detergent
2 bars of soap (such as Ivory), grated
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda

Use 1-2 tbs per load of laundry

But what about DIY stuff for the dryer, you ask? I'll show you how to do that next time!

-Amber

My kitchen has seen better days

This just happened!!

I took a casserole out of the oven, put it on the stove top, and BOOM! Glass and mozzarella cheese everywhere!!! Something must have been up with the temperature on the stove, or there might have already been a crack in the glass dish. Either way, I decided I needed a little blogging therapy after cleaning up that mess.

Time to think about the happier times I've had in my kitchen. Say, for instance, this Valentine's Day.

This is my boyfriend, Pat. Isn't he cute? :)

We decided that because this is our first Valentine's Day together, we would go all out and have an over-the-top cheesy cute Valentine's weekend together. He gave in to my request of dressing up and going to a fancy restaurant for dinner, and I made cutesy Valentine's themed food the rest of the weekend, such as....

Valentine's Day Pizza!

It's pretty simple to make, just cut out heart shapes out of pepperoni slices. Put the pepperoni scraps and the other toppings under the cheese so that you only see the cute hearts on top.

Don't tell me that's not the most adorable thing you've ever seen in your life! It's super cheesy in more ways than one, which was what we were going for.

Next up, Valentine's Day themed breakfast.

It's got red fruit in it, it's got chocolate.... that's Valentine's Day-ish enough for me! p.s.- Look how beautiful and un-broken that glass dish is. *sigh*

Strawberry Banana Chocolate Oatmeal Bake

1 1/2 cups frozen sliced strawberries
2 ripe bananas, sliced
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk
1 egg, beaten
1 tbs unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 dark chocolate chips

Grease pan and arrange half of each fruit at the bottom of the pan.

Then mix together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

Put the dry ingredients on top of the fruit layer. My assistant then added the remaining fruit along with the chocolate chips to the pan.

Combine all of the wet ingredients in a small bowl. I used my homemade vanilla extract for this recipe. Check out my first blog to see how I made that!

Pour the wet stuff over the dry stuff.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Look at the steam coming from this oatmeal. Mmm, delicious!

What did my Valentine get me, you ask? I got flowers, chocolate, dinner, typical... buuuut we also made a nutella-flavored beer together on Valentine's Day night. How romantic! I'm seriously the only girl that a guy could get away with doing that on Valentine's Day, and Pat knows it :)

I got him an awesome letterpressed card. It's homemade.... just not made by me, haha. I found it on etsy:

Source: printerettepress

You're a "hottie," get it?! Inside joke of how much we love sriracha sauce. One day, my letterpress skills will be good enough so that I can do awesome cards like this. But for now, that's why there is etsy.

All of glass is cleaned up, I think I've got all of the mozzarella and pizza sauce off the floor. It's time to forget this whole glass-explosion thing ever happened :)

Free Stuff for Valentine's Day!

Today is all about spreading the love.... and today I'm sharing my love of free stuff! Enjoy!

Free Rental at Redbox
Buy 1 Entree, Get One Entree Free at Qdoba
Free Travel Size Item at Bath and Body Works

This is just what I've used so far. If you're on email lists from other restaurants or retailers, check your inbox. You never know what kind of free goodies you'll get today!

DIY All-Purpose Cleaner

I love homemade cleaning supplies! They're fun to make, they're cheap, and they smell alot better than the chemical stuff. First up, I'll show you how I made my own all-purpose cleaner.

This is everything you'll need. I used an empty all-purpose bottle that I had just finished up, but you can use any empty bottle you've got. Measure out the hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, castile soap, and essential oils, then funnel them into the empty bottle. Shake it up, and you're ready to start cleaning!

I recommend using tea tree oil for this particular mixture because it's a natural disinfectant. The two oils, peppermint and lavender, are purely for good-smelling purposes only. use whatever oils you would like!

This is castile soap. It can be used for many, many, many DIY purposes. Dr. Bronner's unscented castile soap is the best. As long as you don't mind the crazy (and I mean crazy!) religious talk on the label, it's the way to go. You can find it online or in specialty health food stores. I've heard that dishwashing soap can be substituted for the castile soap, but I haven't tried that yet.

DIY All-Purpose Cleaner

2T vinegar

2t baking soda

~10 drops tea tree oil

~10 drops other essential oils (such as lavender or peppermint)

~14 oz hot water (enough to fill your spray bottle)

2T castile soap

First add vinegar, baking soda, and the oils (you will hear the baking soda fizz a little). Then add the hot water to the spray bottle and shake well. Add the castile soap and shake again. Then.... clean something! :)

Later!

More Super Bowl Pics

I'm kind of sad that the Super Bowl fun is over.... but the good news is that because Indy did such a great job, they will probably host again! Here are the rest of my pictures:

 Billy Bush and.... someone from "Extra" that I don't know.

 ESPN!

 We were late to the today show taping by like 2 hours :(

Someone left their sign. I guess Matt Laurer wasn't there. But, Al Roker rode the zipline!

Bunch of cops getting ready to hit the streets.

 More "Extra" reporting

 Laurette and I saw Late Night with Jimmy Fallon!

We weren't allowed to take pictures during the taping. I took this one before the show started.

 Lots of teens waiting for LMFAO to come out of their hotel.

The view of the alley from my office. We were convinced that the black SUV was for someone famous!

Super Bowl XLVI

Living and working in Downtown Indy has been alot of fun with all of Super Bowl stuff happening. Here are the pics I've taken so far. More to come!