Homemade Laundry Liquid

Is there anybody out there who actually enjoys paying for laundry liquid? It's one of those items that can add significant amounts to your grocery bill. There is a way to stop buying this product forever and save heaps of money in the long run. You can make your own! You make a batch of 10 litres and for a family of 4 where I do quite a lot of washing, it lasts me months and months. I made up my second batch today and it took no longer than 15 minutes. I can't even remember the last time I made it.

The only ingredients that you will need to make this is: borax, washing soda, soap flakes (you can buy Lux soap flakes or grate a bar of your own; i grate a bar of Sard soap) and water. You can buy all of these at your supermarket, no need to hunt far and wide.

As you can see you will need 10 litres of containers to put it all in. The first time I did it I didn't have any glass ones and they simply went into recyled soft drink or milk cartons. That's just fine and I still don't have enough glass bottles, still using one soft drink bottle! Over time you can start collecting recycled bottles that may come from cordial or passata. I sometimes venture down to trash and treasure markets where you can pick up some nice vintage bottles like the one below.

The liquid in these jars all looks nicely combined...that's because it is still warm from this morning. After 24 hours it will cool down and then separate. You'll be left with a jelly like substance on top and then water down the bottom. It is essential that you leave a gap at the top so that you can shake it to combine the contents before you use it. You only need to use a 1/4 cup per load.

This is a such a versatile product. You can use it for many things around the house. You could even put some in a jar in your kitchen and use it to wipe down your benches. If you mix 1/2 a cup of laundry liquid with some bicarb to make a thick paste, it makes an excellent cleaner for your sinks and baths.

Give it ago! The full recipe can be found here at Rhonda's blog. Never buy laundry liquid again!!

Baking Biscuits

I woke up to a pretty miserable morning here in my part of the world. It was cold and drizzly. I had plans to go to a great second hand market that runs every Sunday as hubby offered to let me venture on my own, minus my little girls. Despite the weather, I went and it was lovely and quiet. I was able to take my time and browse through the many bargains. I was after some clothes to be able to wear to work and out and about. I bought 2 great woolen skirts; one was a very dark purple which just needs a new zip, the other was a tweed pattern and my third item was a nice cream summer dress with blue spots all over. I got all 3 for $25 and all in great condition, looking nice and vintage :)

The cookie jar was looking fairly empty so I thought I'd bake up a batch with my daughter. She loved it. The recipe is from Rhonda's blog, here. I bet you have most of the ingredients yourself....

Ingredients

500g softened butter
1 cup of sugar
1 tin of condensed milk
5 cups of self raising flour (plain or wholemeal) I've made both and are both great

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius.

Start off by creaming the butter and sugar. You can do it by hand or with an electric mixer. I do it by hand cos I'm too lazy to get out my mixer and why not save some electricity in the process!

Once it's nice and creamed, add the condensed milk and mix it well. Then add your flour and combine well. I start off mixing it with a wooden spoon and then get my hands in to make sure it's all combined.

Line some baking trays with baking paper. Take heaped teaspoons of the batter, roll into a ball and flatten slightly with your thumb. You can add any toppings you like. We added some cinnamon sugar, hundreds and thousands, lemon curd and chocolate. You could also add nuts, jam, anything you have on hand.

Then bake in the oven for around 15-20mins and let them cool.

Lemon curd topped biscuits baking

My little helper :)

It filled my cookie jar!

There were actually too many for the jar....they won't last long :)

Growing Garlic Update

So I planted my garlic cloves as you've seen in my previous post and all was going along reasonably well. The garlic was growing and I thought I'd just keep tending to it and harvest at the end of spring.

My grand father in law was over on the weekend and he was happy with my garlic BUT they he said they needed more room for the bulbs to develop. So I took the 89 year old's advice and replanted my garlic.

My garden has these awful native shrubs. Well they aren't awful, but for someone who generally only likes to grow food I can eat, it took up my growing space! So I got the saw out and started cutting back big time! I've decided I'm going to hack them all back to the trunk and grow my veg around it. Landlord can't get cross for that...I'm keeping their plants but just not letting them grow!

His advice was to plant them directly into the soil and have about a hand spand's width between each shoot. I took those tips on board, covered it with mulch and scattered some lemon slices around to keep the cats away! No joke, it's only been a couple of days and they have increased it height. :)

The new garlic patch

Snow Pea Harvest

It's been a little while since I've posted anything. I've been busy knitting dish cloths. They're coming along really well. It's winter here and the garden is always a bit slow in the cold season but I do have some exciting news to share about my first snow pea harvest! I planted my snow peas in a pot from seed and I was beginning to wonder...would I ever harvest these things!

My snow pea pot sits on the steps of my bungalow beside the clothesline so every time I went out to hang my clothes I'd check to see if any snow peas were popping out..and one day there was a teeny tiny one :)

Their taste is far superior to anything I'd ever bought from a supermarket. They are smaller, crisp and not stringy at all. My daughter loves them too. They are yet to make it into the house!

There are still many flowers on the plant and many more snow peas for my daughter and I to enjoy :)

It really was very easy to grow. All it took was an old pot found in the garden, some potting mix, seeds and covered up with some mulch. I tried to create some sort of tee pee for the plant to climb on. This was created by finding some old, long branches or sticks in the back yard...nothing fancy at all. I wasn't even that regular with watering. When I thought about it I gave it some Seasol (maybe once a fortnight). When I plant this again I will mix the potting mix with some compost to see if the results differ..I'm sure they will. How's your snow pea harvest going ?

Knitting Dish Cloths

My dear grandmother is very unwell with lung cancer at the moment. Recently I've been reflecting on my life with her and everything she has taught me. One skill that she taught me as a young girl was knitting, such a valuable skill that has remained with me all my life.

I'm a frugal mum who is always looking for a new way to save money for my family and help the environment. Rhonda Hetzel at Down to Earth is an inspiration and has many many ideas on how we can make our lives simpler and more sustainable. One of her suggestions is to stop buying things that we throw out like sponges, chux wipes, papers towel..all the things i HATE spending money on. All those items can be replaced by knitting your own dish cloths :)They are knitted with 100% cotton and will last about 5 years. So off to Spotlight I went, bought some cotton and knitted away....If you'd read more about knitting dish cloths on Rhonda's blog, click here.

My first dish cloth

Green Smoothie Recipe #2

So it's 3.30pm on a raining Wednesday afternoon in Melbourne and I have intentions of going to a yoga class later on. All you yogis out there know that it is best not eat for a few hours before your class. This often means that I don't eat dinner with my family and will eat dinner after my yoga class, usually at about 9pm. So that means that my last proper meal is usually at about 1pm. It's always best to have something nutritious as your last meal so I decided to whip up a green smoothie...and this one is actually green! :)

Recipe:
1 large celery stalk..leaves and all
2 large cos lettuce leaves
1 small apple...core and all
1 banana
juice of 1 small lemon
half a cup of water

Whizz it all up in a blender and consume straight away! This is enough for 1. If you're going to give this ago, I suggest maybe only adding the juice of half a lemon...it was a bit tangy but still delicious!

Friday's Harvest- 7-6-13

This afternoon there was a tinge of sunshine so it was time to pull out the never ending weeds that take over my garden! As I was pulling out the weeds around my beetroot, I notice a teeny tiny beetroot coming out of the soil so I decided to pull it out!

My 4 year old decided that she suddenly lovvveed beetroot and ate it raw! There's no way she would've eaten that if it came from a store!

Beautiful beetroot stained lips