Christmas Tag Templates

As an early Christmas Gift to you, I've designed just a few sheets of Christmas Tags to add to your gift giving goodness.

I print mine out on sticker paper, but you could on any paper, really!

Thank you for such a wonderful year, I have appreciated the notes and encouragements from a wonderful group of people who have a special bond-- whether it's through knitting, crafting, green living, parenthood, rhythm of life or family. I hope you all a blessed season.

You can find them on my flickr photostream. Here's a link to individual pages,

Oh, My Deer!    Happy Tree.    Green Sleeves.    Awesome Ornaments.

I'd love to know if you use them!

Fun to use, please do not sell. For personal use only.

Happy Birthday Megan.

My little sister, Megan Elise is turning 23 today. I remember the day we got to see her at the hospital, all pink and wrinkly. Mom let us 'big girls' undress her and count her toes. And from then on, she changed our lives.

She's compassionate, passionate and effortlessly stylish. Somehow, she changed out Mother into a animal lover after we all moved out, and in the last few months has learned to cook--well and in themes, we were present (via skype) for vegan taco night-- I'm going to get her to do a write up for DinnerTime, Again? really soon.  Izzo also shares her middle name.

Happy Birthday, Mega.

Fresh New Day

Today, life begins anew. Today, you are blessed with fresh, new opportunity.
You can build on the best of what has been. You can look clearly and objectively at the limitations that have held you back, and find new ways to transcend them.

Today, you can make amazing progress. Today, you can reach higher than you've ever reached before.

All your mistakes are behind you, and you've learned much from each one. All your experience is still with you, and you can use it in innovative new ways.

This day has begun, and with it comes your chance to make a difference. In these moments you can bring your dreams to life.

From deep within your purpose, look out and see all the great possibilities. This is a day that's now here for you to live more richly than ever.

-- Ralph Marston


Photo is from backgroundmusic on flickr.

Let's Make: Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have a little confession to make. I’ve been making my own laundry detergent for about 4 months now. And it wasn’t born out of some dire need to be Ma Ingalls (which most of my craft/homey pursuits usually are)-- it was out of um... money and needing to do laundry. So I set out to look for a recipe.  I found a few, all based on the same premise, bar soap and borax. Praise the Lord, that’s what’s in my laundry cupboard. I’ve made it four times now, with variations so I could fully report back on my findings.

I found that I liked Ivory above any other bar soap I’ve tried. If you like any other non-oily soap, I’m sure you can use it too. Zest, Lever2000 and Dial have all been suggested. I found that making detergent with just the fels naptha was harsh, I use this as a pretreated and as a laundry booster, but it works great as an add in to this detergent.

First off, this stuff is awesome. And you can use it on everything. I now use it for dishwashing liquid detergent and dish soap too. Seriously, it’s that awesome. It saves us about $22 a month or more (depending on how much laundry/dishes we’re doing) each batch three gallons costs about $1.35 to make and you get about 55-60 loads per batch. Two and a half cents per load. Woah...

This takes about 20 minutes of active work, and about 12 hours after that until it’s ready to use. I make this after dinner and it’s ready by morning. Cool, huh? Ok so here’s how it’s done...

Laundry Detergent
1 bar ivory soap
1/3 bar fels naptha soap
2/3 cup borax
2 quarts of water
3 gallons of warm water

Grate the bar of ivory and third bar of fels naptha soap. In a saucepan combine 2 quarts water and the grate soap. Cook on medium watching and stirring as needed until all the soap is melted. Take off the heat add borax. Allow to cool slightly. Add to three gallons of water and stir. Cover bucket and allow to sit over night. The mixture will be slightly gelled. I will have chunks of gel in a thickened liquid. Use 3/4 cup per load.

Notes:
*For homemade dishwasher detergent and dish soap, use as you normally would. It will not be as sudsy as other soap, but works just fine!
*I do keep a bottle of strong smelling commercial soap on hand for tougher jobs. But I’ve only had to use it twice in the last four months.
*I still use fabric softener, Method from Target I stock up when it goes on sale, which is often.
*You can add about 20-25 drops of your favorite essential oil to the 3 gallons of water to add a scent.
*Use this has a homemade pre-treater too! Naturally cleaner laundry!

If you have any questions I will answer to the best of my ability.

Now, you too can be a penny pincher or a Ma Ingalls— go forth and make your own laundry detergent!!



Don't you wish this was your laundry line? Photo from sxc.hu

Taking photos...

Hello friends, it is a quiet and snowy morning here. Everyone will get up and be busy in a few minutes but for now I’m taking in the quiet that the snow brings. I forget every year what few inches can do— making the world hush. I am tempted to get outside with my camera, but my toasty-toes are preventing me from venturing out into the cold.

I am finally feeling better (finally!). On Saturday, my girlfriends got together for some Christmas shopping. What fun! I was able to ride with my beloved friend, Katie (of the pumpkin crisp fame). Of all the Christmas shopping, lunching, the laughter, conversation— I only have two pictures— and not of these beautiful girls. 100 years from now, there will be no proof of our friendship, other than cookie-swap recipes and baby-having-lore. We even talked about this at lunch. Our best picture is at her wedding with about half our group missing— and three of us are pregnant. Even though I’ve made a promise to myself to be IN pictures, I’m doing a bad job of encouraging others (and myself!). So here's a picture of (just a few of) us from dinner with our husband's a few months ago.

In other news: I will actually be home by myself for few days between Christmas and New Year, so I’m deciding what projects I want to accomplish... I know I want to get the toys cleaned out. The playroom takes on a life of it’s own, and the toys/games/dress up multiplies while I sleep. How can this be? 

And I want to get a few rooms painted. But I also want to read, take walks, watch movies, sew, knit, drink tea... I’m not sure if I can get it all done. Ahh. We’ll see (: 

I am in dire need of new book/ movie suggestions. Got any good ones?? 

I love, love, love

It seems like this week has flown by. I’ve been fighting a cold (I know, I’m sick again... Grr). My companions have been earl grey tea, honey and lemon water (delicious), a warm quilt and going to bed early.  I felt worse when taking Claritin-D (stuffy and flakey— I don’t need any help in the flakey/distracted department) so I’ve opted for my body to just fight it out. Go cells! 

In the midst of my week, it snowed! The kids and the dog went out last night to ‘help’ Daddy shovel, they came back in red faced and giggly.

Isabel made snow pies, and proceeded to eat it. When asked how it tasted she said, “Cold!” Awesome. Truman wanted to take his still-dry pants off, right away when he came in. I’m still not sure why.

We ate dinner, did our candle lighting and advent reading and that was about it for happy memories from the evening. We spent most of it disciplining and talking about attitude changes. I’m hoping for a better night tonight. 

 :::::::::

There are a few things that I can't help but show you.
Number one, my friend Katie made this pumpkin crisp for our bible study the other night. I ate one piece and took another one home it was so good. I even refused to share with Truman (I know I'm a bad mom sometimes).

AND blogging friend Heather from Shivaya Naturals is now an founding editor of an online magazine, Rhythm of the Home. They have some great natural parenting articles and activities. A must read!

Then there is habit, I've had a love affair with this site since the day Molly introduced it. So many unbeleveable women in the same place. This month is their year anniversary. Potentially 35 women giving you a glimpse of their day. Beautiful.

Grace opened her new shop yesterday afternoon. Handmade waldorf dolls. They are just lovely.

I just finished a the book Farm City by Novella Carpenter, it was a fast read, but was super informative. And it proves the point that anyone can make a more sustainable life, just in your own backyard (or vacant lot). She has a blog too!

I think that's enough for now. Have a wonderful December weekend! I know I will.

A long friendship...

 

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."- Anais Nin 

 

Here are the pictures we had taken on our girls weekend. It was just an amazing weekend, I think the pictures speak for the love we have for each other.

These beautiful photos were taking by my favorite photographer and friend, Emily Sweet. If you are in the Northwest Iowa area and you want her to take your photos you may email her at 

♫

emilina_louise{at}hotmail{dot}com.