Makin' Stuff

By now, we all know that I left my soul-crushing office job to teach piano and learn about photography and generally enjoy my life more fully, right?
I believe I've also made it clear that this move cut my income in about half.
This has been a huge leap of faith for us (especially my dear hubs) and I have been scheming up ways to save every bit of money we can. The good news is that it's exactly the sort of thing I like to do anyway. I really love making stuff!
The first store-bought item I decided to replace has been laundry detergent. I'm a major blog-reader (seriously - is there a 12-step program or something?) and I've been seeing recipes for laundry soap all over the place. It looked pretty easy and fun and I finally settled on a recipe from Down to Earth. I used the powdered detergent recipe because, honestly , it looked easier than cooking soap flakes with water. I figured I'd seen all the ingredients before (soap flakes, borax, washing soda - not baking soda, btw) and it would be easy to just pick some up on my weekly trek to the Wal Marts.
I was wrong.
For the last couple of weeks, every time I was in a big box store, I checked out the laundry detergent aisle. I easily located borax and soap, but washing soda was tougher to find, so I turned to my friend Google. It turns out that Ace Hardware stores often carry it, and I was in luck because we have one in the same shopping complex as our Publix. So. I stopped in there this weekend while I was out running errands. No gas was wasted in the making of this laundry soap.
I put it all together last night and it was really easy. I'll let you know how it works, though. I understand that there will be no suds and it will still actually clean my clothes. We shall see...
At any rate, here's my tip: I grated a bar of laundry soap, but it doesn't blend well with the other ingredients. Next time, I will buy a box of soap flakes for a more homogenous mixture.

Also on the "making" front, I have been trying to spend a little bit of time every day working on unfinished projects around the house.
I mean, I know you guys think I make lots of stuff, but you only see the finished items. There is no way you could possibly comprehend how many unfinished items I have stashed under mattresses and in baskets and underwear drawers around this house. I was going to do a sort of "Finished Objects" post with pictures, but Mindy has her camera right now. I've been using her nice camera while I'm taking my photography class and, well, I'm a little spoiled. I don't want to post pictures taken with my other camera. They're not as pretty. Hrmph.

On that note, I will take my leave. I finally have a hat for myself on the needles and I need to finish a nightie I started in December. And I'm making crackers for Emma's lunchbox this week. And I need to get supper in the crock pot.
Sigh.
It's good to be home.

Daily Bliss: a chick flick in the middle of the day
Wake-up Playlist: There was nothing at all in my head this morning, song-wise. I am trying to wake up earlier and all I could think about this morning was squinting.