Making Homemade Fabric Softener

We do a lot of laundry at our house. I used to go through fabric softener like it was going out of style. It gets really expensive so I found this recipe to make my own. This costs about $.02 per load (not counting the added water cost). From one batch, I am able to get 32 loads. The only fabric I have ever had a problem with while using this softener is my flannel pajamas. But to be honest, I don't mind a little static on my jammies.

How to make your own Fabric Softener:

Ingredients: 3 C water, 1 C conditioner, 1 1/2 C vinegar

Start with 3 C water

Add 1 C conditioner (I use coupons to buy conditioner. I can get a bottle (2 C) for $.50)

Use a whisk and mix together.

Add 1 1/2 Vinegar

Whisk again.

Pour into bottle of your choice.

Homemade Fabric Softener

3 C water

1 1/2 C vinegar

1 C hair conditioner (I use Suave)

Measure water into a bowl. Add conditioner. Whisk together. Add vinegar. Whisk again. Pour into a container or bottle of your choice. To use, add to your washer in according to the washers instructions.

Mulberries

I just found out that mulberries are not poisonous. We have 2 trees in our yard and would never let the kids eat the berries because we didn't know if they were edible. It only took 2 years for me to figure out that I could research them online. Duh!

Guess what, they are (edible)! The kids were so excited! They just couldn't wait to try a berry. After we tried them, we realized how good they are. Those berries are really sweet. The only bed part is that they don't have a very long shelf life. Because of that fact, I tried to dehydrate them. Just an FYI, don't ever try that, they were really gross. I don't understand what happened to cause them to taste like cardboard.

We'll stick to the fresh berries. Whenever the kids are wanting a snack, all they do now is get a bowl and go outside to pick berries. I couldn't ask for a healthier snack.

Anyone out there in bloggy world have any recipes using mulberries?

Old and New

Our journey all started in February. We received a letter from a government agency citing us on our yard. The letter stated that because our yard was so bad, that we were being blamed for mud which was going into the storm drains in the street. Yes, the letter was right. We were to blame. The letter also stated that if the yard wasn't fixed we would be getting fined. Well, we didn't want to get fined so we researched options.

We called 12 landscapers. 5 called back. 2 of the 5 said we live too far away for them to help us. We interviewed the 3 remaining. Our final choice was DW Shearer. We felt really comfortable talking to him. We told him what we wanted and he went above and beyond our expectations. They did a great job. Here are pics to prove it.

Before:The deck was so small we could only fit our grill on it (and some miscillaneous toys).

Outline of where the trampoline will be placed.

Bad, just bad.

This area is what started the whole process.

A very nice picture of my rock pile. Those are just some of the rocks that I picked out of my yard. I didn't know what to do with them so before thinking about getting the yard landscaped, I would load them up in boxes and buckets and the kids would throw them in the creek. I used it as a science lesson, which rocks make the biggest splash? But that fun ended when DW Shearer took away my rocks.

During:

After:

We are so pleased with the final product. We use the patio all of the time. My DSH and I will sit out here after the kids are in bed and talk. We have added lights and speakers to the mix. It really is a romantic setting when we sit out there.