Tuesday 22 November 2011

$600 voucher give away at a Wise Woman builds Her House

A-Wise-Woman-Builds-Her-Home

I was over at A Wise Woman Builds Her House on Facebook where June placed a link to her blog about a  give away consisting of one $300 voucher, one $ 200 voucher and one $ 100 voucher making a total of $600 worth of vouchers to be used at Vision Forum. I scanned the post to see if it was limited to any specific country entrants and messaged her on Facebook to see if anyone may enter.  The answer was a resounding yes.  No matter where you live you can enter.  Hop on over to A Wise Woman Builds her House and leave a comment to go into the draw and for extra entries blog about the giveaway.

Vision Forum is a Christian Book store with a difference.  Their range focuses on books that build and encourage the family, their products are encouraging, Christ-honoring resources.  The mission of Vision Forum is to communicate a vision of victory to Christian families. Vision Forum is dedicated to the restoration of Christian family culture.

Click on the image to see Vision Forum catalog.

Blessings

Tuesdays Treasures {18}

 Welcome to Tuesdays Treasures.  I started these posts as a way of sharing great books in honour of my friend in New Zealand who would arrive with the treasures she had unearthed at her weekly trip to the library!

There are so many wonderful books out there hiding on shelves so I invite you to blog about a book on your shelf, one you're reading or one you found at the library and add your post in the linky below. 

This week ...

When I was at Daylesford Paul took me to a second hand bookshelf that came highly recommended where  I discovered this series of books by Joy Berry that was first published in 1988 called Help Me be Good. I was quite pleased to find that these books are still available for purchase from Joy Berry Books: Store


There are 29 books in the series
Bad Sport
Being Bossy
Being Bullied
Being Careless
Being Forgetful
Being Greedy
Being Lazy
Being Mean
Being Messy
Being Rude
Being Selfish
Being Wasteful
Breaking Promises
Cheating
Complaining
Disobeying
Fighting
Gossiping
Lying
Overdoing it
Showing Off
Snooping
Stealing
Tattling
Teasing
Throwing Tantrums
Whining
Or purchase them as a boxed set of 28 books.

Joy has written a short 10 part series on character development  which addresses a few misconceptions, equips parents with guidelines in teaching character to children in different age brackets,  standards and goals are among the topics.

Why I like these little books...
I love these little books as each story clearly illustrates the topic at hand but does not stop there it speaks into the life of the child by empowering them with the information to make a right choice in a number of different areas. Joy talks about the effect of the wrong choice not only to the child but to the family and greater community. If you can find these in your local opp shop do not hesitate to buy them.  They are worth their weight in gold.


Blessings






Please link back to this post before 
Using the linky below to add your treasure:





Monday 21 November 2011

Home Made Laundry Soap

I was over at Creating with Wisdom a few weeks ago and was inspired by Vicky who was making home made soap and thought I would like to try that but not yet.

A couple of days later I found Our Simple Country Life and Esther hosts a weekly Hearts for Home link up and there was a post in the link party titled 10 Money Saving Tips over at Hopeful Future I was intrigued so went to have a look.  One of the tips was about making your own laundry soap so decided to give it a go. Her recipe and the one I have tried is from The Family Homestead.com . Making Homemade Laundry Soap By Crystal Miller

Ingredients

  • 1/3 bar of soap (approx 50 grams) you need a pure soap not synthetic.
  • 1/2 cup Washing Soda this is the RED bag (It is not lectric soda or bicarb)
  • 1/2 cup Borax Powder (done some reading about this as we have a grey water system and the laundry water is used to water the garden so will be leaving this ingredient out in my next batch as too much can kill worms in the garden)
  • Water ( 6 cups hot water + 4 cups boiling water + 5.5 Litres cold water = 8 Lt)
I found all my items at the local Woolworths supermarket in the laundry isle.

Method
  • Measure out the borax and washing soda and set aside


  • Grate the soap into a pot 
  • Add 6 cups of hot water 




  • Heat on medium stove stir till soap is dissolved
  • Add borax and washing soda and stir till all the powder is dissolved.  When you add the powder the mix bubbles up in the pot so add it slowly.
  • Pour into a bucket
  • Add 4 cups of boiling water and mix well.  ( I did some research and another lady used cold water one day and it made the soap separate so stick with the boiling water)
  • Now add 5.5 Litres of tap water and mix well.


  • Leave it to stand over night and set.

  • Use 1/4 cup per load of washing.
The process took me 15 min to do and was not very complex.  I did find that the finer you grate the soap the faster it dissolves.

While I was searching for information I discovered a great pdf. document by by Tashia Calhoun with photo's and step by steps to down load and print: Guide to Homemade Laundry Soap


I have been using this soap for nearly a week now and I am impressed with the quality of the wash.  I was a little skeptical with the first load as there were no bubbles but the colour of the water after the wash convinced me that it works.

Other Bloggers making soap ....

Megan from over at Mommy Minded sent me a powder recipe as an alternative to liquid soap.
Julie from over at Towards Sustainability has a powder recipe which I think I will try next.
Lyn from over at Mom starting from Scratch has some interesting Green Home Making Recipe's 
Green House Healing has a great page on natural products to use at home
Vicky over at Creating with Wisdom made some soap bars.

If you have blogged about your recipe let me know and I'll add your links in here :)


The Cost Comparison:

I normally use Home brand Laundry Powder at A$3-69 for 4 kg.  The recommended dose of 125 grams per load = 12 cents per load

Home Made Laundry Soap cost me:
100 grams Borax = 86 cents
130 grams Soda = 44 cents
50 grams pure soap = 32 cents
8 litre water = 1 cent
8 Litre divided by 4 = 32 loads of washing
Total product used to make soap = $1-62 / 32 loads = 4 cents per load.

Have you made laundry soap and how well did it work for you ? I keen to see other recipes and if you know of any recipes without borax ?

My mission now is to find a better way to store my soap rather than this 8 litre container in the basin.  Ideas anyone ????

Blessings