I'm Such A Thrifty Country Girl!

I always thought I would have made a good farm wife, but life took me elsewhere.  But now I can fulfill my dreams of being as self-sufficient as possible.  I'm starting a garden, hang my laundry out in the sun, can and freeze local produce and generally try to live as close to the land as possible and save our precious resources.   

Recently I posted my dishwasher detergent recipe, so today I'm going to show you how I make laundry detergent.  I haven't bought laundry soap in a couple years since I started making my own, and I'm horrified at the price of detergent when I see it in the stores!  I can't imagine why people spend precious dollars on something they can make which works just as well, is more natural and with no chemicals to clog up our serwers or septic tank.  I don't even have a box to see what's in the stuff anymore, so go take a look at your box or bottle of detergent.

There are many variations for both liquid and powdered laundry soap, but they all use the same basic ingredients:  Borax, Washing Soda, bar soap, and water of course.  I found that the liquid, while a little more trouble to make, works better for me.   I've tried a couple recipes, but the
Dugger Family recipe works well for me.  http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html which I am showing here. 

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value
4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar (you can also use Ivory bar soap)
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

 

After sitting a few hours or overnight, this is what it will look like.  Sort of like Jello.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with the gel and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will continue to gel).  I use a plastic quart bottle.

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.  I didn't add anything because it already smells so good!

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!!

You can also check out Planet Green's recipes, a little different proportions and they don't dilute the gel: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/make-your-own-laundry-soap.html I find that diluting the gel doubles 5 gallons of soap to 10 gallons, which can last up to 6 months, depending on how often you do laundry (there's only 2 of us, so it lasts for over 6 months)

Try it!  It's good stuff and really does clean your clothes!

Little Show in Lisle NY Today

As you probably know, I'm still a newcomer to this area of the state.  I moved from Manhattan last summer, so by the time I finally got settled, it was time to start thinking of the holidays and settling in for the winter.  I've done a couple shows in Utica, but nothing really local until today.  I'm starting to look ahead to the upcoming show season in my new neighborhood. 

I was perusing our local shopper newspaper (we call it the Weekly Reader), and noticed a small announcement for venders at a local flea market.  I called and reserved a table for a whopping $10.00 for today.  Well, let me tell you, it was fun and down-home and I made a lot of friends and contacts in the area.  I didn't expect to make buckets of money, but I made my table fee and more than I expected. 

The show was hosted by the Rebekah Lodge in Upper Lisle NY, a rather rundown building a couple miles from my home.  It was advertised as a flea market, bake sale and luncheon with homemade soup, sandwiches and hotdogs, and it was pretty well attended.

I had the lucky spot right inside the entrance with the show mascot sitting right across from me.  I think folks noticed her first!    She was just a bit creepy, but I got used to her.   The sale ended at 2 pm, so it was nice to have a rather short day.  But in that time, I felt welcomed as most of the other vendors came over and chatted with me, and many customers seemed to like my products.  I made up complimentary samples of tea lights which went over very well.

I'd like to thank the ladies at the Rebekah Lodge who made me feel welcomed, and I hope to meet many of you soon at future shows.  All in all, it was a very successful day, meeting many nice people. I can't wait to get out and about again soon, but I have work to do since inventory is getting low!

Oh, and watch out for stray cows! 

Eco-friendly Handmade Dishwasher Detergent

Just wanted to post a quick review of handmade dishwasher detergent.  Lots of folks like me make their own laundry soap, but few people make their own automatic dishwasher soap.  I thought this was worth trying since it uses some of the same ingredients as laundry soap (which I will post some other time).   This not my recipe, just one I found on PlanetGreen.  This is a website worth checking out.

I made up a batch today and tried it and I must say, my dishes came out sparkling clean.  Just like laundry soap, I'll never buy dishwasher detergent again.  I'm saving a huge bundle of money too.   When you see how easy it is to make, you'll wonder why people spend so much money on commercial products. 

Here's the recipe:

You can find washing soda and borax in the laundry section of your grocery store

1 cup washing soda (I used Arm & Hammer)
1 cup borax (20 Mule Team)
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup citric acid (Fruit Fresh) or unsweetened lemonade packets

Mix and store in a mason jar or other tight fitting container.  Use 1 tablespoon per load. 

If you have a rinse dispenser, fill it with white vinegar for best results.

My dishes came out sparkling clean, no spots and no filmy residue.   Everything in this soap is eco-friendly, and since I have a septic tank, this is important to me.  And who wants to drain chemicals into their public sewer system?  Washing soda (sodium carbonate) is a natural substance made from salt and limestone and acts as a grease cutter.  Borax is also an ingredient that occurs naturally in the environment and usually mined.  Salt is well, salt.  Can't argue that.  And citric acid is also a natural ingredient.

These are some of the ingredients in the bottle of soap I have left.  These are only the emergency treatment ingredients, so who knows what else is in it:  sodium carbonate (that's ok), sodium hydroxide (lye, which is caustic),  sodium silicate (used to preserve eggs and pressure treated wood, really?  WARNING! HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED OR INHALED. CAUSES SEVERE IRRITATION TO EYES, SKIN AND RESPIRATORY TRACT), clorine bleach (is highly toxic to fish and invertebrates).  Well, yeah, I'm rethinking using bleach in my laundry now.  So the bottle under my sink also cautions against getting in eyes or on skin and breathing fumes.   No, not the kind of stuff I want in my dishwasher. 

So folks, do yourself and the environment a favor and try this soap.

New England Dinner

I generally cook about once a week, if that, but when I do, I like to make it memorable.  So I thought it would be nice to make Clam Chowder since soup is so nourishing on a cold rainy day. 

I decided to make New England Clam Chowder instead of Manhattan style, knowing that my dad, a native Rhode Islander, would probably come back to haunt me!   New Englanders have a true rivalry about which chowder is best.  Here's a bit of background on the issued of Manhattan vs New England chowders.  But I decided to take that chance anyhow.  To complement my chowder, I also made clam cakes.

I remember clam cakes as a child when we visited New England every couple years.  I recall seeing roadside stands, or clam shacks,  selling clam cakes, chowder, and lemonade, usually nothing else.  I remember we would often stop at a clam shack for a salty order of clamcakes when we were out and about and got hungry.  This was before the days of fast food chains around every corner.  

Since we didn't live in Rhode Island, my mom perfected a recipe early on so we could continue to enjoy them at home.   I've included it here:

 

NEW ENGLAND CLAMCAKES

2 c flour
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t sugar
1T baking powder

Sift all the above into a bowl.
Mix 1 can (6 oz) including broth with enough milk to make 1 1/4 cups.  Stir 1 unbeaten egg and the clam and milk mixture into the flour until it is thick.  Drop batter by tablespoon into hot fat to deep fry.  Turn to brown both sides.  When brown, lift out and drain.  Sprinkle with salt if desired while still hot.  Makes about 2-3 dozen. 

Oh, and did I mention I'm highly allergic to the iodine in shellfish, some more than others?  Delicious as it was, I'm paying the price.  I'll be fine tomorrow.

planting, Juilliard trip, mailing list, laundry, newly redesigned website

Well, hello again. The weather has been fine, and during this business downtime, I'm busy working on my yard and planting the shubs and trees I recently bought from the county co-op. That's about 35 bushes and 15 trees plus some perennials. Most have been planted and I'm hoping they survive. I bought Butterfly bushes for along the driveway, American Cranberry bushes to plant along the road and across the yard for privacy, and some shade and native trees.

I also started hanging my clothes outside to dry in the sun. There's really nothing better than the fresh scent of sun-dried clothes!

I'm excited to announce my new website, totally redesigned with an whole new look.  What do you think?  http://dewonapetal.com/  I also started a mailing list for my infrequent newsletter for new products, upcoming shows and general news. By no means will I spam your inbox with useless emails, so don't be scared. I won't be doing regularly scheduled emails right now and will only send an email if I have something important to relay to you.   Sign up for our newsletter

In other news, I made a trip to the city recently to see my daughter perform at Juilliard in Dialogue of the Carmelites.  It was stunning.  And I got the grand tour of Juilliard.

http://opera.broadwayworld.com/article/Dialogues_of_the_Carmelites_to_Perform_at_Peter_Jay_Sharp_Theatre_421_20100310

Peter J. Sharp Theater lobby:                                    New wing, staircase

hallway, Drama Dept

Warming up

Lobby

After show party

Memories, memories, keep them close.  Til next time...

Spent the past few weeks rebuilding my website, not by choice

A couple months ago, I bought an external hard drive to save all my pictures and files since my computer was pushing 10 years old.  I knew it was going to die soon, so I thought I was doing the right thing, saving all my business and personal files and a few thousand pictures. 

So the computer did die, and I think it was fully infected with worms and viruses and what have you.  All our protection was even infected we suspect.  So we went out and bought a new pc that day and destroyed to old infected hard drive.   So I go to use my external drive on the new pc and it suggested I put a password on it, so I did and confirmed it twice (it's an easy password).  Right after that, the new pc stopped recognizing the password, so all the files and pictures I had saved are now inaccessible.  Rest assured, I have consulted many teck geeks and stores, and have called Western Digital many times, to no avail.  There is no way to reset the drive or transfer the data.  My only choice is to reformat the drive if I want to use it again, but that's not even an option.   Every day I remember something else that is on that drive and it makes me ill.  It's important to note that the new pc also corrupted the password for the router too, but we could fix that. 

So you see, I had to rebuild my website since I couldn't update it without my web files.  And pictures.   I've managed to lift pictures from here and there to rebuild the site.  It's been a major pain in the rear, but on a positive note, I think it's the best looking site I've ever built!  http://dewonapetal.com/

I've also started a newsletter which I intend to use infrequently for important announcements only.  I hope you'll consider signing up for it.  I promise you won't get daily or even weekly emails. 

In other news, business is a little slow right now, so I have time to work on other projects like getting my garden ready, planting shrubs and trees, and doing some business bookwork.  A couple major projects are in the planning stages right now.   I'm also working on a new line of Essential Oil candles, so I'm pretty excited about that.  The summer show season is fast approaching, so I hope to be out and about to meet my customers soon. 

I recently vended at the Indie Garage Sale in Utica NY which was a huge success.   Shows can be a lot of work, but the effort is always worth it when I can meet my customers.  I tried a new table set-up this time, but I still need some taller display shelves.  And eventually, I'll need to buy an outdoor tent, preferably with sides for upcoming outdoor shows. 

So things are good.  Need some candles?

Snowy Winter and other stuff

I've been busy and very neglectful of you, Blogger.  I apologize.  So here are a few pics to update you on what I've been up to.

Making color samples: 

examining footprints in the snow:

hauling wood for the stove

Relaxing (daughter and friend)  I only go out at night

Enjoying the snow

homemade soup and English muffins.

Settling In

Well, I think I am finally starting to settle in for the long cold winter.  It has been snowing for the past few days, and it's here to stay.  It's only 10 right now and not going above freezing anytime soon, probably not until spring.  The wood stove is working 24/7 keeping us cozy.  In the evenings we go down and haul up wood every hour so we have enough to last through the night and next morning.  We just made our last trip and it was bitter outside even though the woodpile is right outside the downstairs door under the deck.  Tonight I saw fairly big  footprints in the snow (not big enough for a bear, thank goodness).  I'm going to do some research to find out what animal they are.  We've seen deer, turkeys, foxes, rabbits, the usual.  Nothing exotic.  Neighbors tell us there are a few bear around.

Yesterday and today I spent organizing and filing mountains of paper in my office.  It's a New Year's Day tradition.  If I'm slightly hungover, it's something quiet I can do to keep busy and start the New Year off organized.  I'm always so proud when I'm finished.  Soon I will get down to the onerous task of working on my business spreadsheets.  Every year I swear I'm going to keep up with it on a weekly basis, but I never do.  Maybe this year will be different.  Maybe someone will do it for me. 

Luckily, we don't need to go anywhere until grocery shopping next week

The holidays are over and it's time to start anew

Well, after the Indie Garage Sale in Utica NY, which was a lot of fun and a huge success, I had to scramble to get ready for Christmas.  I had done very little shopping, decorating or baking, so things got pretty hectic.  The Garage sale was tons of fun, even if it was a very long day, not including the 2 hour drive each way. It was great not having to navigate the NYC subways with my bins and hand truck at 6 am.  And I met some great crafty friends that I hope to meet again at future shows.  Now that this is my fulltime gig, I plan to do as many shows as possible in the upcoming year.

A few days before the Garage sale, I took a quick trip to NYC to see Carla in her Lincoln Center Debut at Alice Tully Hall.  While in the city, I had a chance to visit the Union Square Market to see my candles being sold by Re Jin of BaileyDoesntBark.  http://www.baileydoesntbark.com/  I enjoyed immensely working with her to create her Jae line of candles.   I'm sure she's still recovering from a month at the market.

Carla's debut was awesome.  She sang a selection of Charles Ives songs and was mentioned in the Times review.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/arts/music/12axiom.html   "Mr. Adams’s gentler side was heard in a set of light-textured orchestrations of five Ives songs, sung with an appealingly burnished tone by Carla Jablonski, a mezzo-soprano."  

So on to Christmas and the hub-bub of activity.  I baked way too much stuff, so I'm shipping it out this week with the gifts that no one took with them on buses and planes home.  The girls left on the bus yesterday afternoon, and Ken left this afternoon to fly back to Florida.  His trip up here last week was a nightmare because of the east coast snow storm.  He rebooked, then flights were cancelled, and we even drove to Buffalo to pick him up only to find out that flight was also cancelled.  He ended up spending the night in the Charlotte airport before finally making it up here the next day.

The girls got their Snuggies.

Nina got her jar of pickles

 

And they went ice skating in Binghamton

And Ken and I took an afternoon trip up to Lake Cayuga, one of the Finger Lakes near Ithaca to take in the sights and walk around in the fresh cold air. 

It was a wonderful Christmas and as much as I looked forward to relaxing after everyone was gone, I feel lonely and listless today.  I miss the bustle of everyone eating, talking, and enjoying each other's company.  But I guess I'm ready to settle in for the long winter days, puttering around here, perusing seed catalogs and planning the year ahead.  Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone!

Getting ready for the Indie Garage Sale in Utica NY on Dec 12

Sorry I haven't posted lately.  The past month I have been a mad woman getting ready for my one and only show this fall, the Indie Garage Sale in Utica NY on December 12.  http://www.indiegaragesale.org/  When I moved, I had almost no inventory, so I had my work cut out for me. 

I decided to arrange my table with categories of fragrances - Floral, Citrus, Exotics, Herbal/Garden, Holiday, Fresh and some miscellaneous.  I am going to make up some pre-made gift baskets, but will also make them up the day of the show.  I will be selling travel tins, small pillars, votives, tea lights, tarts, bead sachets, reed diffusers, scented ornaments and other assorted smelly things.  The candles are all done as of tonight, and I have some cleaning up to do! 

Not only have I been making products, I redesigned my packaging and re-labelled all my exisisting items.  I still have to print more business cards, signage and hope to make a banner of some sort soon.  I still have a lot of work to do, but the bulk of it is behind me. 

I have to have everything packed and ready to go by next Wednesday since I am travelling to NYC for my daughter's debut at Lincoln Center On Thursday Dec 10.  http://events.juilliard.edu:8080/cal/event/showEventMore.rdo  She's singing the Charles Ives songs.  I'm excited to be going back to the city for a couple days to visit!