Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

I've made laundry detergent and fabric softener, so I decided it was time to make dishwasher detergent. 

It's something else that's really easy to make. Only 3 ingredients!

2 cups borax, 2 cups baking soda, 4 packets unsweetened lemon kool-aid

Mix it all together well. Use 2 tbsp. per load.
I put 1 tbsp. in the closed section of the dishwasher and the other 1 tbsp. spread on the door.

My dishwasher detergent has 25% less sugar! lol.
My endless collection of empty containers has really come in handy lately.

I only made a half batch, because I wasn't sure how I'd like it, but it turned out really well, and I'll definitely make a regular sized batch next time. 

Nearly everything in the dishwasher came out completely clean. A couple of things still had some stuck on food, but that happens even with the expensive store bought detergent. I'm pretty sure my dishwasher just sucks. All the clean dishes were great though.
I also put vinegar in the rinse aid compartment, and I think that's what's worked better than anything. Vinegar seems to work better than any rinse aids I've ever bought.


I used the recipe I found from this pin:

Source: Light & Spoon via Victoria on Pinterest

I'm also interested in the DIY Dishwasher Soap Packets that Stephanie from Lady with the Red Rocker made:

Source: Lady with the Red Rocker via Victoria on Pinterest

Homemade Fabric Softener

So a couple of weeks ago I made some laundry detergent (you can see that post here), and I wanted to make fabric softener at the same time, but needed vinegar. I finally remembered to pick some up at the store, and immediately had to make the fabric softener.

I found this pin:

Source: A "REAL" Housewife and Mommy via Victoria on Pinterest

Her post actually also has a liquid laundry detergent and an OxiClean recipe in it. I may try the OxiClean at some point too, but for this I was just interested in the fabric softener. 

I've mentioned it before, but anything with just a few ingredients automatically is great in my book. This only takes white vinegar, conditioner, and water. 

I used Pantene, but that's just because it's what I had on hand. Most others I've seen making this have just used whatever scent of Suave they prefer.

 All you do to make this is stir 1 part vinegar and 1 part conditioner into 2 parts hot water. 

EASY PEASY! 

I couldn't get my conditioner to dissolve completely, so my mixture looks lumpy, but it looks pretty uniform, so I'm not too worried about it.

I was excited to try it out, so I immediately gathered a load of laundry and put it in. I used 2 tbsp in my washer's liquid fabric softener section.

Results: My clothes were soft. There wasn't really any scent left on them, which I'm still okay with. They smelled even cleaner than when I used only the homemade detergent, so I'm happy with that. They were fluffy when I pulled them out of the dryer, and felt like I'd used a commercial softener. I do use dryer sheets as well, but I got better results with this than with dryer sheets alone.

Speaking of dryer sheets, I recently saw a pin that recommended cutting dryer sheets in half to make the box last twice as long.

Source: TheFrugalGirls.com via Victoria on Pinterest

Let me tell you, this works great! I feel like I've just been throwing money away for so long. I've seen where people have dipped a rag in fabric softener to make a reusable dryer sheet, but honestly, I'm not even going to go to all that trouble now that dryer sheets essentially cost me half as much as before.

Overall I'm very satisfied with my homemade laundry pursuits. I may get some Unstopables at some point, because I love the smell of those, but I'm really not worried about adding extra scents to my stuff for now. I love the fresh, clean scent my clothes have without all the extra chemicals.


I'm linking up to:

Valentine's Day Cupcake Pan

I saw this pin a couple of months ago, and thought it was really cute. I have way more cupcake pans than I could ever need, so I knew I wanted to do something along those lines. I've been holding off, trying to think of the perfect idea, and I decided to make a Valentine's Day cupcake pan.

This didn't take long at all, and I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out. It took 2 coats of acrylic paint for the base. I splattered red all over it, and I like how that turned out. There's also a clear glitter paint over the whole thing, but you can't see that in pictures. 

I'm already thinking of doing this for other holidays. (Yes, I have that many extra cupcake pans. lol.) I need to work on my free-hand lettering and drawing, but I still like this a lot.

Have you done anything creative with any extra pans you have? I'd love to hear your ideas.

I'm linking up to:

Cloud Dough

I made this a few months ago, so I don't have any pictures of the process. It's only 2 ingredients though, so you don't need them anyway.

Mix together 2 cups of flour and 1/4 cup of baby oil. 

That's it!

You can add in food coloring if you want, but the blog I found it on just kept it white, and I really think it's prettier that way. It seemed to take to the color weird, so it's a weird blue-green color, but Garrett doesn't seem to mind.

This stuff is so fun! It's softer and fluffier than normal playdough. You can't really mold things with it because of that though. But it's fun just to squeeze and play with. It is a bit messier than playdough. It's sort of greasy feeling because of the baby oil, and it seems to be more crumbly. I'd be careful of what surfaces you put it on, and be aware that hands will be messy, but it's really nice feeling and moisturizes too. 

This stuff seems to last well. I made it 2 or 3 months ago, and it's held up great. I store it in a leftover mini oreo fun pak container, but I'd recommend a plastic bag or something, because it sinks down in the container and is hard to get out.

There are some downsides to this, but I'd definitely recommend it as a bit of a change from normal playdough. I will be making it again in the future.

Here's the original pin. She made a really large batch, but I just cut it down to 1/4 of hers and it was great.

Source: Flights of Whimsy via Victoria on Pinterest

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I first made homemade laundry detergent 3 years ago. I liked the idea of it, and the process wasn't so bad. I made 2 or 3 batches of it overall, and then I got lazy. I've been using store-bought for the past year and a half. I decided I was tired of paying so much for something I know I can do on my own, so I dug up the stuff I still had and found another recipe.

I've always made liquid, but it bothers me, because the detergent seems too gloppy (technical word, i know) and I feel like it can't be an even mixture in every load because of that. So this time I looked at a recipe for dry laundry. It's the same recipe other than the water added in the liquid version.

Ingredients

Soap: Most laundry detergent recipes call for Fels Naptha, but I've found that any bar I've used has worked fine. The one this time is actually some lavender scented bar from Ross. I use whatever I have on hand. 

Borax: There seems to be a lot of back and forth about whether or not borax is toxic. According to 20 Mule Team, borax is safe to use in laundry. It is NOT the same as boric acid. As with any cleaning product keep it away from children and pets, but it is safe to use.

Washing Soda: Make sure you get WASHING soda. This is NOT the same as baking soda. They have different pH levels. If you're having trouble finding washing soda nearby, Arm & Hammer's website has a store finder. Most people have seemed to have luck finding it at Walmart. Make sure to check the top and bottom shelves in the laundry section. It always seems to be in an out of the way place.

Grating your soap is going to be the longest part of this process. I played a game of Monopoly on my phone while I did it. After about halfway through the bar I was tired of it, and handed it off to my boyfriend to finish.

I measured out the borax and washing soda and mixed them in with the soap really well. Then I transferred it to a container and shook it for a while to make sure it was definitely mixed enough. 

I stir it each time and use 2 TBSP per load. 

Results: My clothes come out completely clean. There's no scent to them, but I'm planning on making some fabric softener soon which will change that. I like the plain clean smell though. I haven't tried this on anything with stains, but any odors have been washed out completely. 

Here's the original pin I got the recipe I used from:

Source: Totally Ovar It via Victoria on Pinterest

Garlic Parmesan Knots

This was my second time making these. 

I liked them the first time, but changed them up a little bit, and they were much better this time.

You actually only need butter OR oil, not both.

One of my favorite things in trying new recipes is when I have nearly everything on hand already. I had to buy the can of biscuits, but everything was already in my cabinet or fridge.

The original recipe only calls for the garlic powder, canola oil, grated parmesan (the stuff in the green can), and some dried herbs. I like adding in some ground red pepper for a little spice, and I can't stand the parmesan in the can, so I have to use something a little more real. 

The shape of these is almost so simple that you can't even guess how it's done. All you do is roll out your biscuit and tie it into a knot. Tuck your ends around the back and you're done. 

Now, this is another place I differed from the original version. The recipe calls for you to bake now, before adding any of the other stuff, but when I did that I felt that the end result was too dry on the inside and greasy on the outside.
This time I mixed all the ingredients into some melted butter and brushed it pretty generously over the dough before baking. I think it definitely improved them.

Bake as directed on the biscuit package. 

I added a bit more butter and parmesan cheese after taking them out, but that was mostly for the looks, and you could get away with skipping it at this point, since they've cooked with everything on them already.

I was very pleased with how these turned out this time. Brushing the butter on first made them a bit more moist and fluffy. Last time I made them they were even better heated up the next day, so I'm looking forward to eating them tomorrow!

Here's the pin I originally got the recipe from:

Source: Real Mom Kitchen via Victoria on Pinterest

Sakura Kirigami

I've been super busy all day, so my blog today is really short. I just wanted to share this kirigami flower I made. 

Kirigami is origami that involves cutting paper. I've always been fascinated by origami, but never been very skilled at it. When I found this tutorial from Omiyage blogs I knew I had to try it though.

Source: Omiyage Blogs via Victoria on Pinterest

Those flowers are too pretty to pass up! I've practiced a few different ways of cutting them, but the shape it shows on Omiyage's tutorial is still my favorite so far.

I've been using plain printer paper until I got a little better at it, but wanted to try one a bit larger with some leftover tissue paper today. First thing I cut it into a square and folded it into somewhat of a cone shape that is necessary for making the 5 pointed flower. There is a fantastic PDF tutorial here of the right way to fold it. 

This is what mine looked like once I folded it. Not very pretty, because the tissue paper was hard to work with. The top points aren't that important, as long as everything underneath those is lining up well, so I was good to go.

Instead of paper snowflakes where you usually take out minimal amounts of paper, these require you to cut nearly the whole thing apart leaving just a small section. I actually didn't get a picture of this part, because the thin paper wouldn't cooperate, but you can see some better examples here on the Omiyage page. 

After cutting it out be very careful when opening it, because even with thicker paper it's pretty flimsy. I love the way my tissue paper one turned out. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I'm already itching to make plenty more to go with it!

Miracle Pan Release

My favorite Pinterest project so far is actually one of the most simple I've done.

I pinned this a while back, and when baking some banana bread recently, I thought of it and decided to try it out.

Source: Apron of Grace via Victoria on Pinterest

Ingredients

1/2 cup Lard or Shortening

1/2 cup Vegetable Oil

1/2 cup unbleached or all-purpose Flour

Directions

Whip, whip, whip and store in airtight container at room temperature.

Yields 1-1/2 cups

 Brush on your pans with a pastry brush!

Only 3 ingredients and it took less than 2 minutes to put it together in a mason jar.

Not the most appetizing, but it gets the job done.

The best part is, it works great! I've used it for everything I've baked since then, and had great success. I used it when baking brownies a couple of weeks ago, and despite brownies being something I ALWAYS have a problem with sticking they pulled out of the pan effortlessly. I meant to get a picture just to show how clean the pan was after the brownies were removed, but I haven't gotten in the blogging state of mind yet and forgot to snap one before washing the pan. I promise I'll update this next time I bake something.

Let me know what you think if you try this out! :)