My Book!!!

Hubby was in Boise this week for the BYU/Boise game, and he went to the local Deseret Bookstore, and look what he found!
My book, face out, thank you very much!

Stacked out on a table, too.

He was so proud, he bought one. Too cute.

I'm all tickled! :-)

Just a Little Bit of Paint...

...can transform things. Every DIYer knows this. I have had this nook in my house that has been bugging me for a year. We call it our "mud room," but really it's just a tiny alcove off the garage door entrance. There's a bench for backpacks and hooks for coats, etc. And it looks TACKY:

The bench was a build-it-yourself from Michaels, TWELVE years ago. The hooks were from Home Depot, and the baskets underneath from Wal-mart. It just looks...off. 
So, I got out my trusty black primer/spray paint, and went to work. I sprayed the bench first.:

The coat hooks were relatively easy. I covered the edges of the hooks with painters tape v-e-r-y carefully, and used Press n Seal (yes, really!) to cover the hooks. I love Press n Seal. You can do a million things with it. And I do.

And when everything was dry...CHECK IT OUT!!!:

New Baskets:

The hooks turned out great:

After all was said and done, the whole re-do was $30 with new baskets and paint. I'm pretty happy with it!

 

Homemade Laundry Detergent??? No Way!!

Well, actually, way.
I took the plunge.  After reading about so many people exclaiming on Pinterest and other places about saving bazillions of dollars with their own homemade laundry detergent, I decided to try it. Hey, I'm all for saving money!

Let me preface this by saying I do laundry for a family of six. I have one girl and THREE boys. Which basically means I do a few loads of laundry every day, or it would be BAD. (Want to know what I mean by "bad?" Look up a picture of Mt. McKinley online, and that would be about right.) And my detergent of choice? Tide. At $17 on average for a bottle, which I buy twice a month, that's $32 a month. $384 spent on laundry soap in a year. Yowza.

Anyway, here is the recipe for homemade laundry detergent, and no, it's not my own, I totally copied it from someone else, who copied it from someone else, and so on, and so on. It is for POWDER. So if you use liquid and have an aversion to POWDER laundry detergent, this isn't for you. I used to have an aversion, but I got over it.

Here are the ingredients you need (I found every single one at the local Super Wal-Mart):

--> 4lb box of Baking Soda (I could only find 2lb boxes so I used two of them)
4lb Box of Borax (You can find this in the laundry aisle)
4lb Box of Super Washing Soda (it was right smack dab next to the Borax)
Oxi Clean Powder (I used the 1.3 lb size. *This is optional*)
3 bars of Fels-naptha soap (I found the this right next to the Borax too, I imagine a lot of people make their own laundry soap so they merchandise them together.)

I would also have on-hand a medical mask and some hand protectors. Or you can tie a scarf around your nose and mouth and wear dishwashing gloves. Because you can breathe in the powder and soap, and get it on your skin, which wouldn't be fabulous.

Once you have all the ingredients, grate the 3 bars of Fels-naptha soap. I used a hand cheese grater, it took about ten minutes. Some people use a food processor, but I am thinking unless you SUPER clean it, your food will taste like soap for a while. YUCK.

Now, take a large contractor-strength black trash bag and line a small garbage can with it. Then dump all the ingredients into it. (I did this outside my garage, I'm sure the neighbors wondered what I was up to, mixing a bunch of household chemicals together, but oh well.)

Then take the bag out of the garbage can, twist it up really good midway and shakeshakeshake that puppy to mix everything together.
Next, snip one corner with scissors and let it funnel into your container of choice. I chose this one (it made so much it actually filled up two of these big containers but I'm only showing one:

And voila! There you have it! Homemade laundry detergent! Now as far as use, I have tried it. I use 1/8 cup of detergent (yes, really that's it!) for my front-load washer, and I've washed in cold and hot and warm, and the clothes are CLEAN. I almost think it's better for HE washers because this detergent is extremely low-sudsing. And my clothes don't smell perfumey or anything like that. They just smell clean. Which I like. Because I love my fabric softener sheets and I'd much rather my clothes smelled like those. ;-)

So, this batch cost me around $20 to make when all was said and done. Since I only use 1/8 cup per use, it lasts forever. Let's say I make it only twice a year. That's $40. Compared to the $384 I normally spend?

SOLD.


 

You Could Hear a Pin Drop...

The house is soooo quiet! Today was the first real day that all my kids were in school (Thing Four had staggered start kindergarten last week so this week is his first normal week). I have to be honest, it feels weird to not have someone around all the time.  Just me and Maggie, my maltipoo puppy. She's a whopping four pounds, now, by the way. I think if she ever got to five it would be a miracle. She's one dainty dog! But that's perfect for our family, because I like small poops. ;-)

ANYWAY, I have so many lists and lists of things I need to do, it's a little overwhelming. Now that my 5-year old is in school and  I don't have to worry as far as what he's getting into/how he could endanger his life in the house, I can immerse myself in projects, writing and home. I have a feeling the days will pass pretty quickly!

I am finally pneumonia free! It CAME BACK last week--apparently the first course of antibiotics didn't kill it, and I started feeling yucky again on Friday. So apparently I am now on the Mother Of All Antibiotics and apparently they are working because I feel SO much better than I have the last ten days!

Well, it's off to the vet and a half dozen other places. I am feeling good. As long as I can stay on top of things, (he he let's see how long that lasts) I won't get overwhelmed.

Just a bit of irony: when I have no time I want to write so badly, and when I DO have the time I am completely blank. How is that fair?

;-)

Pneumonia.

Such an ugly word. And can I just say, an U-G-L-Y sickness to have? Apparently I had "walking pneumonia," and when my body finally couldn't take it any more it said I QUIT THIS and I instantly had a high fever and chills and aches that made me insane. In fact, I spent the better part of three days curled up in bed in a fetal position, wishing the monsters would go away.

I run a household of six. You can imagine how this all went down, with ME being the sick one, for once. Thank heaven school wasn't in yet and I have a 14-year old daughter who can cook and clean. And Hubby came home from work and stayed home and took care of me and the kids. He took them school shopping. He even spent a day taking our teenage daughter school shopping, which was a bit of a debacle but I took her last night after the first day of school so it all worked out in the end.

I am feeling much better--after seeing my chest x-rays on Thursday they wanted to give me a shot to "jump start" things, but I was allergic. So I got probably the dose of antibiotics they usually reserve for elephants and horses, because twenty-four hours later, my fever broke and I was MUCH better. 48-hours later I could breathe easier. Today, I'm glad to have all of it behind me, except for being really weak and tired.

Crazy, huh? I haven't been sick like that, EVER, I think. But no one else got it and the kids all started school yesterday without problems and life is better.

Although, can I just say, the high school here has it wrong? They don't give out school supply lists until the first day of school, and they HAVE to know that every binder and dry-erase marker and pair of notebook dividers has been sold out for a few days! Grrrr. We had to go to three stores, and finally got ONE binder from Target (it was accidentally in the photo album section and had a mark on it but we snatched it up) and got the other stuff at CVS. Yes, CVS.

Thing Four has staggered start Kindergarten so he doesn't start until Thursday. I will be an emotional wreck most of that day. Ugh.

Sorry I don't have anything funny to say, the pneumonia temporarily disabled my sense of humor.

Why I Should Never go to Hobby Lobby.

Love crafting? Love DIY projects? Love to decorate your house? Hobby Lobby has everything you could possibly want. And I mean pretty much everything.

I went there yesterday, just looking for some cute scrapbook paper to make tags. All innocent and everything. What did I come out with? Wall art, a ton of cute fabric (don't worry I don't sew), craft tools, three HUGE books of the most adorable/expensive scrapbook paper ever, and about nine spools of ribbon. Don't ask me how much I spent. Because you'll gasp and shake your head at me.

This is why I must NOT go to Hobby Lobby. A) It's like CRACK for the crafter, and B) All those little things add up and you end up spending about 600% more than you anticipated.

If you are someone with unlimited funds, by all means, live there and knock yourself out. But I certainly will only be going to Hobby Lobby a few times a year. Because my house really doesn't need another knick-knack. I think.

MUST. RESIST.

Is it REALLY Almost Fall???

Dear 2012: CAN YOU JUST SLOW DOWN ALREADY???

Love and Kisses, 

Me

Yep, that's about how I'm feeling lately. August is in two days. AUGUST. Sorry I'm a little caps heavy today, but honestly? We are in AUGUST? This means Back To School. This means the craziness of homework and schedules and soccer and other sports and running from one activity to the next and homework and the headache of buying cool school clothes and expensive calculators and HOMEWORK etc. etc. etc. (And now that I mention it-- is it me, or are calculators getting more pricey the older my kids get? Pretty soon the required calculator will be $500 and possessing artificial Intelligence, I swear.)

ANYWAY, as I was shaking my head at the calendar this morning, I was trying to think of what I've done this year so far, and answering the questions of A) have I met any of my goals? And B) have I done any of the things I wanted/needed to do? The answers: Not Really and Kinda Sorta.

That's what I get for having four kids and having to juggle my time evenly between them. Which is a virtual IMPOSSIBILITY, let me assure you. There's only one of me. Maybe when I'm at Staples in a few weeks buying my super-expensive calculator I can look at the prices of CLONE-ME machines. Because they have those in stock, right? How do women with more kids than me do it all?

;-)

Breathe, Lara. Just breathe.

My Book Featured in Deseret News!

I think I have arrived. ;-) So exciting! Click here to read the review.

I'm Scared.

Read a crazy post a few days ago, by a blogger who used a picture (off of Google, who doesn't?) and apparently even though she linked her picture back to the source and gave credit where credit was due, the person who owned rights to the picture sued her. And WON. And it wasn't a little bit of money.
So, no more Google image searches for me, unless they have ZERO copyright restrictions. I have decided that if I can't find it, I will draw a really, really SAD rendition in stick-figure form, of what I want the picture to look like, or take the picture myself. That way, I cover my...rump. Because I LOVE to google image search. With reckless abandon. Well, no more. So, if you see posts with crudely-drawn stick figures (because I can barely draw a straight line, that is why I'm a WRITER not an ILLUSTRATOR), it's because I couldn't find a picture of what I'm looking for. I am apologizing in advance.

TDF Recipe and WHERE IS MOMMY'S STYLUS???

Found this recipe on Pinterest. It is TDF. Seriously. It has FOUR ingredients, and my kids loved it. Like, they wanted to marry the cookies.

Lazy Cake Cookies

1 box yellow or white cake mix(I used yellow)
2 eggs beaten
5 T melted butter (don't skimp on this, use REAL butter!)
2 C M&M's or chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet because that's how I roll)

Mix together, put in a GREASED 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 20 min!

 Mine turned out like this, and seriously, this was all that was left after they cooled:

Thick like cookie bars. Didn't feel or taste like cake at all. YUM.

Now, in other news, I have a Stylus problem. As in, I have a stylus for my iPad, and it keeps GOING MISSING. This is highly annoying. Think of a tiny pen. Think how easy it is to lose said pen. That is a stylus. It's so tiny, but I can't live without it! Why? A stylus is soooo much better than using my finger! Especially since when I'm bored (never at home, usually when I'm waiting in the car or at Taekwondo) I like to play Big Fish Adventure/HOGs. So much easier/bettter with a stylus.

But not so much when THE STYLUS IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. Yes, I'm using shouty capitals. Yes, that's how annoying it is to me! I've tried clipping it on, magnetizing it on, etc. etc. Yet it manages to go missing. And no, my kids aren't the culprits. They swear up and down they don't take them.

How do I keep my stylus with my iPad? Does anyone else have this problem?