Tiny Bubbles

Did I ever talk to you guys about my laundry soap? Yes? I don't remember. And (lazy again) I'm not going to check. I'm just going to pretend that I've got a whole new batch of people reading that weren't here before. Hi new people!

So anyway, last year in the early spring, I came upon a blog with a recipe for laundry soap that claimed to cost MUCH less and be extra awesome for the environment. Of course I was immediately interested and rushed out to buy the ingrediants. Here's the recipe. (Actually, now that I link to it, I'm pretty sure I talked about it last year.)

1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1 bar Fels Naptha soap, grated small
1/4 cup Oxygen Cleansing Stuff

Well, it's been almost a year now, and things are going great! I can count the times I used more than one tablespoon of detergent on my load of laundry on one hand. I've made two batches so far for myself, and that's cost me a whopping (four, two, one, carry the nine...) seven dollars. And! Most of the ingrediants haven't needed replacing yet. I'd only need to buy a couple more bars of Fels Naptha to get another year's worth of detergent, which would bring my total investment up to nine dollars. And that is ONE HECK OF A DEAL ON LAUNDRY DETERGENT. Ahem.

I've been talking with my Aunt Debbie (who has a fancy front-loader washing machine) and she says it's been leaving some residue on her laundry. I have to say this has NOT happened to me, but I have a regular old wasteful machine, so I can't say for sure if that was the cause of the residue.

I CAN say that for as long as I've been using this detergent, I've also forgone my usual fabric softener for a rinse-cycle add of 1/4 cup of vinegar. (Which, lets face it, I am Lazy and so I put it in my Downy Ball and add it in the beginning.) You can flavor the vinegar with an essential oil, but it's not... (Har har) essential. Your clothes won't smell like vinegar. I promise. Plus, you shouldn't use fabric softener.  Because it totally makes Mother Nature want to cry.

(Those pictures, by the way, are of what I gave away this year for Christmas presents to friends and family. The jars make me happy to look at. They are right purdy.)

Tradition

Last year, my cousin and I got together and made Valentine's gifts for friends and family. It was the start of the tradition, so it makes sense that not everything turned out exactly as we'd envisioned.

My idea was a serving or two of homemade hot chocolate mix. The mix itself was just OK. Most people weren't prepared for the chili powder that gave it a more adult kick. The kids especially were less than thrilled. It maybe should have went out with instructions? I don't know. A friend of mine called it "brown drink" which, while more than accurate, still stung. I was determined to find something that wouldn't suck this year.

Enter the homemade instant chai mix. I got the recipe here and there are a few to choose from, all pretty similar. I loaded it up with spices and (this part is key) tried it ahead of time. Also, I let other people try it ahead of time. I find that a lot of the time when I'm excited about a recipe or craft or what-have-you, I am capable of completely blinding myself to any bad points it might have. (And yet, at other times, I totally can't tell how awesome something I make myself is, either.) Anyway, people seemed to find it appealing, even went so far as to compliment it. Nobody called it "brown drink". So it's a go.

Next year, I'm thinking about making a homemade powdered cappuccino mix? Single-serving warm drinks still seems to be a good idea. Mid-winter, who doesn't need a little cup of warmth wrapped up in a heart-spattered package?

Especially when it comes with fudge. Yeah, that's my cousin's contribution.

I'm Boring Lately

I spend a lot of time thinking up new things to make, which I rarely make, and new ways in which to help myself be less crazy.  I want to spend less time worrying and more time enjoying the simple things in life.

The easiest way I've found to enjoy life more is to take the extra time to enjoy the people around me.  Sometimes, this is hard to do.  (I work in customer service.)  So I spend a lot of effort (when I'm actively trying to enjoy people, before it becomes a habit) making sure I'm understanding where everyone is coming from and being genuinely happy to see them and acting like I am when I'm not, so I trick my body into acting happy and then I trick my mind into thinking I'm happy... it goes on and on like that.  You can see why I don't feel like talking about it constantly.  The running commentary in my brain is enough, trust me.

I've been researching making my own lip balm, and while it seems interesting and fun, it doesn't sound like something I'd want to do all the time and try to make money at.  So that idea's over.  But I've decided I would like to make some from scratch as gifts for Christmas or something, maybe next year.  In the meantime, I'm going to keep knitting dishcloths (count is up to 9.5), but that's about all the knitting I've been doing.  Oh wait, I lied.  I'm also knitting a  garter stitch scarf for a certain cousin's daughter.  She picked out the very soft, very fuzzy yarn herself when we were shopping, and suggested slightly heavily that she would like a scarf from some yarn like this, because it was soft and fuzzy and the colors reminded her of spring and maybe that would mean that spring would come faster when she wore it please.  So that's what she's getting.  Someday.

My cooking is improving, but other than an ambitious (for me) tomato-cream sauce last week, it hasn't gone anywhere it hasn't been before.  For the Superbowl party (us and my parents and the creatures)  I made two pizzas from scratchings (read this recently somewhere, and it made me die a thousand cute deaths, but I can't remember where I saw it, sorry), and we had veggies and dip.  

The bread baking has slowed to a halt.  I've been really tired lately, as lame as that sounds.  Maybe it's all the crazy thinking I've been doing.  Who knows.  Alls I know is I've got some loaves promised, and there'll be some head rolling all over the place should I not come through with them.  The head will be mine.  In case you were wondering.  I also found a springform pan in some stuff, and I'm wondering what one makes with such a device.  I'm too lazy right now to look it up.  Is it cheesecake?  Does one make cheesecake with a springform pan?  I'm guessing it's something like that, but I'm miles away from cheesecake.  Making cheesecake will take (above anything else) a desire to eat cheesecake.  I'm not really a cheesecake sort of girl.  Maybe Bruce will want cheesecake someday.

My work is sort of sucking lately, and it's something specific I don't want to talk about on here.  If you're curious, you can always email me to hear me vent.  It's a couple of things that are sort of specific.  A few nights this week, I've come home and taken a bath to relax.  I'm becoming bath-dependant.  I'm concidering billing my gas bill to Workman's Comp.

So!  I was looking for something fresh to do.   Any ideas?

Bread

Amish White Bread
I, like many people suggested, reduced the 2/3 cup sugar to 1/4, with great results. Mom, Dad, Bruce and I all approved.


English Muffin Bread
Simply wonderful. Crunchy crust, crumbly slightly sweet insides, perfect with honey butter. Simple to make, with only one rise. I'm going to make this all the time. It's that good.

If you'd wondered what I've been doing lately, wonder no more. I'm making bread. At least twice.  And cleaning the house. And making soup. And learning how to embroider. And reorganizing the pantry. And unpacking the spare bedroom so that Bruce will have somewhere to set up a studio/practice room for his instruments. And jumping on a mini-trampoline whenever I pass it, for a few seconds at a time.

I'm a little busy. And (I hope this doesn't jinx it) I also think that I might be losing weight. A little bit. I bought a pair of work pants from Old Navy that were on super-clearance, because a pair of pants for $7.50 is a good investment, even if they're slightly too small, at least it is if you're really going to try to lose some weight. Anyway, they're size 14, and the last pair of work pants I bought was slightly too small at size 16. However, those were from a different store, and I don't believe they were "stretch". If you've ever bought pants with "stretch", then you know how much that can falsely boost your confidence level. They fit like a dream, though, and even if it doesn't mean I've lost any weight, I'm going to let it boost my self-confidence and my desire to slim down (some).

I'm also really impressed at myself for making the chicken soup I made this week. It wasn't anything fancy (in fact, I didn't add actual "chicken"), but it was much more than I would have thought myself capable of. Part of my New Year's resolution was to open myself up to trying new things, things that are scary. Cooking is turning out to be so enjoyable that I'm having a hard time understanding why I didn't start this a long time ago. I hope the rest of my experiments turn out as well as the cooking. I have a feeling they're going to. I can't wait.

Also, I started knitting a pair of felted clogs (from the FiberTrends pattern I bought almost a year ago). So far, so good. Oh, and I started over on my hourglass sweater, this time with a different yarn. So far, so good. The drape is much nicer with the new yarn and new gauge. I might have to do some creative increasing for the chest portion, but I'm going to cross that bridge when I get there. Still haven't ripped out the old sweater, because it's much more fun to birth a new project than to bury the old.

Dishcloth count is up to 6.75. That doesn't sound right, but those are the ones I was able to grab from the bin at one go.

It's Snowing Again

I tried to make french bread last night, and it totally failed. Here's what I think went wrong: I didn't so much "follow the recipe", and when I halved the recipe that I didn't follow, I didn't so much remember to "halve" all of the ingredients. Now I have a brick of bread-like substance. The nice thing is, I like pretty much all bread, and will no doubt eat it anyway. This is why bread is a good cooking experiment for me.

Last weekend, I made chili from scratch. Did I tell you? Well, it was actually good! Wow! I can sometimes cook things and have them turn out!

Next weekend is Mom's birthday, but it's also Bruce's birthday weekend. There's a tattoo convention happening at Oneida Casino that we're planning on going to, afterwards joining in some festivities. Not sure where, but I'm sure there will be festive people somewhere. It's finally gotten cold, and it's snowing, and if nothing else, we'll have to join in the festivities on the middle of a lake somewhere, because these people up here know how to have a festive time, and when it's finally wintery and they feel like they've been missing out ice-fishing-wise, they'll make that festive happen in the middle of the lake.

Shit, I just remembered that Bruce got invited ice fishing by a friend of ours. Oops. We should have maybe talked to him since, oh, September if that was going to be a possibility.

The weekend after next, I'm going to Appleton with my cousin Michelle. We're shopping for ingredients for our Valentine's Day presents (mostly for female family members). We're going to be making Aztec Hot Chocolate, from this recipe that I got on Hello Yarn:

Aztec Hot Chocolate
makes one jar

*1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
*1 cup powdered milk
*1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
*1/2 cup granulated white sugar
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
*1 tablespoon ground chili powder- I used ancho, but you could go spicier (just don’t use as much!).
*about 3 oz. chopped dark bittersweet chocolate

Mix up everything but the chopped chocolate- get the lumps out! Stir in the chocolate and put it in a pretty quart jar.

Use 1/3 cup for every cup of boiling water. Makes 12 servings.

I'm interested to see how the chili powder affects the drink. :)

After the Fact

There are a few things I want to do for next Christmas that I didn't get a chance to do this year.

Firstly, I want to make a yarn garland. There's a specific garland I'm going to emmulate, and it's the one that Kmart sells under their Martha Stewart Sugarplum line for Christmas. I've wanted it for the past three years, only realizing this year that I could do it by myself for much cheaper and with a bigger sense of gratification. I want to do it next year. I've already got some of the poms made - this year they were strictly for decoration.

I want to make a garland or an ornament with the cards we recieved this year to hang next year. Maybe I'll make a garland for next year and an ornament after next Christmas? Something. They were all so pretty and it felt so nice to get them, I think it would be nice to have a momento of some sort. Maybe start a tradition.

I want to do a gingerbread house. That's pretty self-explanitory.

I want to go carolling with a group that does it up north. I know the guy who runs it, so I'll get on the list for next year.

I also want to keep making Christmas ornaments for people every year, because this year it was really fun and I already came across some ideas for next.

I want to make things with salt dough and some things with paper-mache. There are so many cute things out there (ornaments, etc) that can be done with these. The sky is literally the limit.

I want to make more crochet snowflake ornaments. I've got one that I made this year, but maybe I could make one per year or something? Something.

Don't worry, I've already got something lined up with my cousin Michelle for Valentine's Day, too. ;)