Weekend Gardening Update

Saturday when I got up I made another batch of blender soap.  Here it is right after unmolding.  I'm trying to perfect my soap "recipe".  I want a good moisturizing soap.  I add no dyes or perfumes because of allergies.

Today I planted some petunias in pots by the front door.  I love my rusty birdhouse!

Then I cleaned and started up the pump on the koi pond in front.  I only have one koi left in this pond.  I will have to get a couple more.  There is a striped frog that has moved in.  We played cat and mouse all day.  I would walk by without my camera and he would be there.  I would walk by with it, and he would be hiding.  I'll get picture of him one of these mornings.

The bleeding heart is in bloom.  It is always so pretty in the spring, but is short lived.

Then I moved to the garden.  I worked on weeding the carrots and didnt get far at all.  It is very time consuming and tedious. 

Boy wonder and hubby made three potato boxes and I got the last of the potatoes planted.  I'm using the "build as you grow potato bins" method. 

Hubby planted five tomato plants against my better judgement.  I never plant tomatoes in the garden before Mother's Day.  I'm sure I will have to cover them a couple times between now and then to protect from a frost.  I do plant tomatoes in pots on the deck earlier and planted four today. 

Then for supper we had some foraged wild asparagus hubby and boy wonder found yesterday. 

It was sooooo yummy!  Nice and tender, not tough like the stuff you buy in the stores. 

So what did you do this weekend?

Homemade Blender Moisturizing Soap

I made another batch of soap last week. It's on the soap rack curing and I can't wait to try this one. It looks so creamy! Smells good too, even though there are no scents added.

Moisturizing Blender Soap

3 ounces Coconut Oil

5 ounces Olive Oil

7 ounces Soybean (Vegetable) Oil

1 ounce Castor Oil

2.23 oz lye
5.28 water (always use distilled)

2% Superfatted

The lye calculator I use can be found here: Bramble Berry Lye Calculator

Store Bought Laundry Soap vs Homemade Powder Laundry Soap

Making homemade powder laundry soap is easy. There are lots of different "recipes" for this but the ingredients are the same for all. 20 Mule Team Borax ($3.38), Arm & Hammer Washing Soda ($3.15) and Fels Napthia bar soap (1.99) for a total of $8.52.

Grate one Fels Napthia bar with a cheese grater. I used my attachment on my small food processor and it went quickly.



When I dumped it in my mixing bowl it measured 6 cups.

I then started adding and mixing the borax and arm & hammer alternately. I added a total of 8 cups of borax and 5 cups of arm & hammer. This was not the full box of either one. I had already used a couple cups of the arm & hammer and there is probably about 1/4 box of borax left.

It made a total of 13 cups. I dumped it in a container big enough that I could shake it and roll it around to keep it mixed.

So to comapre prices. My normal detergent is $5 for 50 loads (certain loads I only use half as much as recommended).

This cost me approximately $2.53 (3/4 box borax), $2.63 (5/6 box of arm & hammer) and $1.99 for the Fels Napthia for a total of $7.15 for 13 cups.

What will determine if this will save me is how much I will have to use per load for my laundry to come clean.

At 1/4 cup per load, I'll get 52 loads at .14 per load. Higher than my .05 to .10 a load for normal deteregent bought.

If I use 1/8 cup per load, I'll get 104 loads at .07 per load. Cheaper than my .10 a load for normal detergent BUT are my clothes going to be clean?

Some report that they only use 2 tablespoons per load. I will have to try it and see for myself with my hard water if it will work.

A couple other thoughts of mine regarding this.
1) I still have the trip to 3 different stores to get the supplies = MORE TIME AND GAS
2) The disposal is two boxes and some wax paper as opposed to one plastic bottle. Cardboard vs plastic has its pro's and con's.
3) The time of grating, measuring and mixing this together.

The whole point of me making anything homemade is to save money and be more sustainable. I'm not convinced this is true with this particular subject and I don't want to loose sight of my mission.

What is your thoughts on homemade laundry soap? Do you think it is cheaper? Does it clean your clothes as well?

Thriftstore buys

I had a chance to go to a couple thrift stores last week.  I was looking for a blender to make the blender soap and I picked up a few of these for a buck a piece...

Wool sweaters.  I'm going to make felted soap. 

Here is a picture...

(pic courtesy of Pure N Simple Soap)

Have you made any felted soap or used it?  What other things have you been wanting to try felting?

Making Handmade Soap in a blender

Today I made Blender Soap!

The reason I chose to make it in the blender was you don't have to be as accurate on the temperature of the lye or oils, the time to trace is MUCH quicker, separating is greatly reduced and smaller batches are made.  Most recipes only make a 1 pound batch at a time.

So today I dove in.  I got all my supplies out, prepared my molds and measured out all my oils first.

The most important thing I learned about making ANY kind of cold process soap is to mix your lye solution outside while wearing rubber gloves, safety goggles and a respirator mask.  I found my goggles and medical type masks for $1 at a dollar store.

Here is my lye solution after being mixed outside and waiting for the small smokey fumes to clear.

I mixed my lye with a herbal lemon tea that was brewed with distilled water.  When using water in soap always use distilled water.

This made the soap a caramel color.  I'm not sure if it will remain that color after curing, we will have to wait and see.  I also mixed in the tea grounds at trace. That's the spots/specks you see in the soap. The smell so far is lemony. 

My soap is now curing on my counter.  I hope it comes out well considering I think I blended it too long or used too mach castor oil.  It was super thick and did not pour.  It was the consistency of a very thick Dairy Queen blizzard shake.  You know the ones you can turn upside down and they stay in the cup! lol  Time will tell.  I hope it feels good on my skin and isn't as drying as commercial soaps.

The recipe I used:
All measurements are by weight

Lemon Zinger Tea Soap
5 oz soybean oil
5 oz olive oil
3 oz lard
3 oz castor oil
5.28 oz distilled water steeped with two lemon zinger tea bags
2.9 oz lye
The contents of the two tea bags added at trace

Next I think I will be making a coffee bar.