Going Green

There's a little more to this being "green" thing than I expected.  I'm not talking granola green, I'm talking "cha-ching" green.  But, it turns out, granola AND cha-ching, work really really well together.  Green Granola?

Here's what I did.  I found a recipe online for homemade dishwasher detergent.  I don't have really hard water, but the money savings was awesome.  I have a great dishwasher(Bosch) so it really does do a nice job.  But, I thought, "What the heck?  I'm only out a few bucks if it doesn't work."  And it did!  It works great.  I don't think I'll go back to store bought detergent again.  My dishwasher looks bright and shiny, it really cleans the dishes and stained plastic ware, and it smells good afterwards, unlike the store bought $$$$ stuff.  Here's the original post HERE.

And any time I can use my Cricut, even better yet.

And I don't have clip coupons for dish soap anymore!

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

2 cups Borax

2 cups Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

2 cups LemiShine or 12 packets unsweetened lemonade Koolaid(ONLY  lemonade flavor)

1 cup Kosher Salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  There is a chemical reaction of some kind that makes these ingredients clump up and get hard.  So, just set aside the large bowl on a counter away from children and pets.  Give it a good stir every once in a while for a few days.  Then store on the countertop in a sealed container.

Use Vinegar as a rinse agent.

I also just went paperless with my insurance for email Explanation of Benefits instead of mostly useless papers I just have to find a place to file, and find the time, and shred when I'm done, which also equates to wasted crap in my garbage can.  Which saves me cha-ching again, along with the added benefit of less crap in the landfills.  Which again, I'm not granola on it, but I do feel better about that.

Apps!  Check this out.  There are apps out there for your iPhone and other smart phones that save the barcodes right on your phone.  Instead of all those little member cards and key fobs(that always rip off), you just open up your app, and show the cashier, gym, rental places, your little barcode on your phone.  Just search "Key chain app".

I know there's more I've done lately, that have been little ah-ha moments for me.  I do bake my own bread most of the time.  I make a lot from scratch.  It just tastes better too.  Next up just may be homemade laundry detergent.  My daughter and I both have really sensitive skin and it can be downright painful, especially this time of year.

Starburst Mirror

When we gave K-Bug's room a makeover we knew we wanted to make this.  I found a great tutorial HERE, at Under the Table and Dreaming.

I printed up her TEMPLATE HERE but didn't glue it to the back, I was afraid the paper might come off the back.  The disk I found to use was about a quarter of an inch smaller than the template so I just marked the edges of the disk I used and then marked the template myself with a Sharpie.  Our itty bitty town doesn't have a craft store, at least not until this fall(squeal), so I asked at our new Lowe's.  When I showed her what I wanted to make she took me over to the garden center and found the perfect 6 1/2" circle for me, it's a coaster used for potted plants.  But this filled the bill perfectly!  I bought skewers from Walmart, .97 cents for a package of 100.  I picked up 2 packages so I could find the most even skewers.  I didn't use nearly as many as Under the Table did, but we didn't want a really full one.

Sort through the skewers to find the straightest ones.  If you have a grouted tile counter top, this works perfect, roll the skewers between the straight tile.  Mark 16 skewers 10 1/4" from the flat tipped end.  Mark 32 skewers at 9" the flat tipped end too.  NOT from the pointed tip, some skewers are not the same length, so you need to measure them from the flat tipped end.

Hot glue the first 16 at each marking, pointed tip in.  What worked best for me was making a small line of hot glue about an inch long, putting the skewer on the glue and twisting it.  If there is too much glue on the side then it makes it harder to align the next length next to it.  I added an extra bead to give it a little 3D dimension so the skewers that were marked at the 9" mark were actually a little raised if looking at the back side of the starburst.  When I flipped it, the longer skewers appeared to be raised.  You'll see....

 Keep gluing until all are fastened down. 

I took it outside and spray painted glossy black on both sides.  When dry, bring it back in and turn right side up.  See how the shorter ones appear to be recessed?

Flip it back over and fill in the skewers with lots of hot glue.  The back won't be pretty, but no one looks there anyways.  Decide which part of the starburst you want to be the top when you hang it on the wall.

I took some framing wire, twisted some loops and bent in half.  Hot glue it to the back.

Then, add even more hot glue.  Turn over and attach the mirror.  I found a grouping of peel and stick mirrors at TJ Maxx for around $6.00.  I think the coaster cost around $4.00, spray paint around $3.50.  The whole thing came to less than $20.00.

ENJOY!!!

Bedroom Redo...

We decided to redo K-Bug's bedroom since the Mermaid moved out.  Deciding exactly what to do has taken time, but we're happy with the results.

After:

 The Reading Nook

New Bedding from Target

No cable in the rooms, but DVDs are allowed.

Repurposed Sconces and Scarves

 

Repainted Cubbies for Nightstand

 

Lots of bright colors

We made the Starburst Mirror Ourselves

Great Tutorial at Under the Table and Dreaming, and

my own step by steps at Sistas Procrastinate in Style.

During:

Vacuum up all the baseboards and clean them so you can mask them off.

Patch up any big nail holes.  If they're small, the paint will just fill them in.

I like the kind that goes on pink and turns white when dry so you know when it's ready to sand and paint over.

Primed all of the color blocks.

Primed them TWICE!

Before:

Catching up...

It's been a while, I've been terrible about blogging lately.  Now that the kids are back in school though, I've been trying to find my new rhythm.  So far it's been all about doctors appointments since my old pulmo left town and so did his wife who was my primary care, and then getting my foot well enough to go back out in the work force.  The foot has been S-L-O-W.  But, I see a hike at the end of the tunnel.  No surgery still, but we're one step away from it.  But I'm pretty confident in this, it's called EWTS, and I have to go to the bay area to have it done.  So, in the mean time I decided to find a way to liquidate all of my craft supplies and use my new sewing machine that I've hardly touched since I got it.  I'm working on jewelry, purses, wallet key chains, and some whatnots to list in an Etsy store.  When I get it up, hopefully the end of the week, it'll be here:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/accidentaldesigner .

Here are a few pics:

And here's the "PROTOTYPE" of a key chain/wallet I'll be adding too.  That was just some old fabric to practice on and work out the kinks.

Craft or Treat...

I love my Cricut! The witches came from a Silhouettes free font I downloaded. And the "Boo!" is in Sparkly I downloaded from fontdiner.com. Used the Sure Cuts a Lot program to cut these out on the Cricut. The glass boxes came from a Super Saturday craft I never got to even start. The good thing about this vinyl is, it comes right off with a warm blow dryer or Undo. So, next month I'm sure I'll change it from Halloween to Thanksgiving(ooohh, maybe some gorgeous leaves!), and then the day after Thanksgiving, onto the Christmas Nativity scenes.



I used some green feather trim I picked up a while ago to go around a small lampshade. I just pinned it snug under the glass block to keep it in place.



I also just pinned some sheer orange wired ribbon around the witch blocks, the lights helped reflect even more color behind them. The lights are small strands I picked up I think at the $ store, and they're just tucked in behind the blocks, no holes in the blocks.



Boo!

I (heart) Craft Blogs....

FUN ideas! These blogs I came across today inspire me! Click on the names to go to their website. What are your favorite craft sites?

SamsterMommy Oh CUTE!!!!

Cupkateer

Mymindseye

Ucreate

TheIdeaRoom

SuttonGrace

CraftRookie

Playing In the Beads....

Silver, pewter, gray swarovskis, light gray fresh water pearls, gray glass flat beads, gray etched glass beads, just a hodge podge of silvers. Waiting for some silver crimp covers to finish it.

I was having fun and making these for myself. I don't have anything to wear the bracelets with, but the watch goes with just about everything I own. Hhhhmmmm, may need to go shopping.
Yellow turquoise, silver spacers, gray swarovskis, and I don't remember the bigger round gray beads.

Red coral, freshwater lentils, swarovski squares, lampwork glass, recycled glass, silver, freshwater pearl, etched glass, etc.... Also waiting on crimp covers to finish.

My Contribution to Mermaid's Twilight Obsession....

LDS YW Version! I saw a blinkie that said, "My heart belongs to my husband, but my neck belongs to Edward". Mermaid loved it so much that we had to come up with something appropriate for her. For those of my non-LDS audience, RM stands for Return Missionary. She's off at a celebration party for the release of Breaking Dawn with some girls from church, they tried to think of some Twilight themed snacks, but we couldn't come up with anything besides soda and brownies. The girls thought the Quileute "bonfire" food didn't sound very appetizing, lol. We made a sign for her friend, E, hosting the party in sparkly blue and put the quote, "I like my men cold, dead, and sparkly". Hopefully her mom doesn't mind, E had told us she had too many on her facebook and narrowed it down to that one and one other, but that was her favorite, so I hope she likes it. E was almost done with the book already, past page 700 already, and she had a swim meet today!