A Trip To The Japanese Gardens!

Some of my kids and I went to the Japanese Gardens in San Jose, CA. and only wished all the flowers were in bloom! But it was still a beautiful and serene place to visit! Nature is such beauty and it always amazes me every single day! The flowers, trees, birds, clouds, mountains, streams, lakes, animals and all our surroundings! If you just stop and take the time to look and listen to what nature has to offer you will be amazed too!

Homemade Laundry Soap!

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So today I made homemade laundry soap and it turned out great! It was alot of fun and I had a little bit of help from the kids! 
Beside the fact of laundry detergent being so expensive......! I don't like all the fragrance these company's put in it either not to mention all the other stuff!
This recipe has 3 ingredients and is so easy to make and fun to boot! I washed a load of clothes right after I made it and the clothes turned out fresh and clean and did not smell perfumey (if there is such a word!) and I was happy with the results!
I am starting to make alot of the everyday things I use here at home now and although it does require alot of your time it does not require alot of your money and we all know how hard that is to come by these days! So I now have a certain day to make most of my items and am now in the process of organizing days to do certain things (like laundry day, cooking for a week at a time, thorough deep cleaning of the house day, gardening, etc,....) This "organization" thing is starting to make sense to me now! :) I have learned alot of things and want to share them with others not only to save money but to help our earth too!
So here is how you make the laundry soap.......
Shave a bar of zote soap (you can find this at your local grocery store in the laundry isle) into a large bowl or container, then pour 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda into bowl with the zote soap shavings and mix it around. (I mixed with a wooden spoon) keep stirring until it becomes flaky like the commercial stuff you buy in the stores and then transfer into a bucket and its ready to use! I made several batches and I have not filled my 5 gallon bucket yet! This is going to last me a long time! The bar of zote soap cost me .99 cents, the box of washing soda cost me $2.77, and the box of borax was around $3.oo So for $6.76 I can make a TON of soap and save LOTS of money too!

This is my triple crown blackberry bush and this is in its 2nd year and now I have berries starting!

triple crown blackberry bush

Tomato plant

my pretty little flowers!

Beautiful plant when its full

This is the "weedy" part of my yard and I keep it like this for the "wild" life that comes to visit!

My beautiful rose

only one rose! what happened?!

egg carton,lint from the dryer, old school crayons

school crayons ready to melted in a sort of make shift double boiler!

egg carton filled with the dryer lint

dryer lint from dog's beds ...ewwwww!

melted crayons turned wax being poured over dryer lint in egg carton

left over melted crayon wax will be saved and re-melted for next time!

The finished product! These little guys will help me start my fire in my fire pit tonight!

petroleum jelly and cotton balls

cotton balls covered in petroleum jelly...these work well too!

My last blog was about  "fire starters" and I wanted to post some pictures of the ideas I got from other people. I tried these and they do work really well! I really like the egg carton filled with lint and covered with wax because not only do they work really well and provide a nice steady flame for the tinder to catch but they are easy to carry too! The cotton balls are covered in petroleum jelly and once lit, they too provide a nice steady flame but you do need to put these in some sort of container (being they are greasy!) and they are also easy to carry!
This is a fun project (except the part where you peel the paper off the old crayons!) and even my kids like helping me prepare these. I also use melted candle wax from old candles although you could buy paraffin wax just as easily.
I learned these ideas from others and love to experiment with ideas for such things and come up with my own conclusions about each one! Anyway, I hope some of you can use these ideas to make life a little easier in some way!

I have been organizing and sorting through my camping gear and came across a box of matches that were left out in the yard next to our grill (which was covered) but unfortunately the box of matches were not and were now stowed away inside a soggy box. Needless to say the matches were useless and were thrown into the fire pit amongst all the other bits of tinder. That is the problem with matches...when they get wet they are no longer any good to use and when you need to light a fire you need something that will light no matter if it's wet or dry and that is where the good ol' fire starter comes in!  There are alot of these things out there on the market and I guess it's up to the buyer to decide which one works best for them. I have a fire starter but I want to compare some of the other ones out there on the market so I ordered a few and have decided to test them and see which one I prefer!
No matter what fire starter you use, I found that having a little help from other types of  "firestarters" such as, cotton balls really makes a difference! I have some tips that I have learned from others on how to make these "firestarters" and will share them with you in my next blog.