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Homestead Blessings

Make your own Laundry Soap

8/19/2015

7 Comments

 
Laundry soap recipe
Laundry Soap Recipe (High Efficiency safe)
                     Makes enough for 40-60 loads!!
2 1/2 cups bar soap, grated & sifted- see notes & photos below
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
1/2 cup baking soda
Essential Oils (optional)
Stir all ingredients together (add the essential oils last). Store in an airtight container, see notes &  top & bottom photo for ideas.
Notes:
1: We save all of the scraps from making soap & let them dry further- the dryer the better. You can use other bar soap, but we find that the dryer types make a finer powder. If you don't make soap learn how on our Soap Making DVD, barter with a friend who does or purchase a pure bar soap like Dr. Bronner's. 
2: You can hand grate the soap with a cheese grater or use a food processor, then sift through a fine mesh strainer or window screen- the finer particles of soap will dissolve quicker in the wash water.
3: To give & sell the Laundry Soap, we made up calico fabric drawstring bags (learn how to make the drawstring cord on The Art of Crafting DVD) & put 1 recipe of Laundry Soap in a gallon, zipper, plastic bag,  place it in the drawstring bag then add a tag with directions & ingredients.


Directions for using Soap Powder:
Use 1-2 tablespoons per load. If using cold water dissolve Laundry Soap in a cup of hot water before adding to wash water.
Make a Liquid Laundry Soap
You can make a liquid laundry soap by taking 2 cups of this Laundry Soap powder, put it in a 2 quart container, fill up 1/3 of the way with hot water & whisk until Laundry Soap Powder is dissolved, then fill with cooler water the rest of the way & whisk again. Use approximately 1/4-1/2 cup per load.

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  Grating the soap scraps over a window screen, sifting into a bowl underneath.

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          The Laundry Soap can be packaged in these pretty fabric bags
       or in a jar tied with a fabric bow (as in the photo at the top) 
                      & now it's ready to use, sell or gift.
                                
                               

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You should have seen us franticly searching through our friends metal barn, where all our worldly goods & supplies are being stored, trying to find the 4 wooden cheese crates full of our soap scraps! Thankfully we didn't stash them far & were able to make several bags of Laundry Soap, after we found & dug through our fabric boxes : ) for our booth at the Arts & Ag Tour. Crafting in a camper can be quite a challenge! We are looking forward to our new home & unpacking our supplies!! To read more & see updates:
youcaring.com/thewestladies

      Making your own Laundry Soap can be such a joy, it's quick, easy & very inexpensive. Knowing you are using pure ingredients & making a pure product, without sulfates, fragrances, phenols & petroleum, for the health of your family & creation is a true, homestead blessing!
                                      Enjoy-
                                          The West Ladies

7 Comments

Painting Giveaway!!!

8/8/2015

2 Comments

 
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Our sweet friends, who are managing the fundraiser for us, have a surprise for supporters to the cause!

They'd like to give three original, unframed paintings to the first three donors of $700 or more. This can also include anyone who has already given a lesser amount, and gives another gift, totaling $700 or more.  
Note: One person has already given this amount, and will receive one of the paintings, so there are two paintings left!

These will be painted in acrylics or watercolor by Melissa Merritt, sister of Ann Merritt, and will be mailed out at the end of the fundraiser. The painting will be of a farm/country scene, similar to the one shown, but with a few differences. (One difference is that it may have more green to reflect TN!) The size for the acrylic paintings should be 7" x 9", and the watercolor, if used, will be of a slightly larger size.


More of Melissa's work can be found here:  https://paintermelissa.wordpress.com


Note: If you specify to be anonymous when you give your donation, we will try to keep you anonymous when we give the painting, otherwise it may be revealed who the paintings have gone to.
Thank you so much for your support, please pass the word along!

YouCaring.com/thewestladies
2 Comments

West Ladies Home Raising Update

8/1/2015

4 Comments

 
Dear Friends and Followers,
    Its summertime! Hope y'all are staying nice and cool! In this kind of heat we go to the garden early morning and late evenings to harvest & weed.
 Tomorrow the humidity/temperature is supposed to be lower, so we hope to spend most of the day out there weeding & mulching. That's one of the keys to a successful mulch garden- keep the mulch coming on!!! Despite a few weeds, our little garden is just beautiful with all the butterflies flittering around the zinnias & cosmos. The cypress vines and moon flowers are in bloom, & we are still getting lots of cucumbers for our Mean Green juice and other good things we make with them. We still have potatoes in the ground & will harvest some tomorrow. Nothing like new potatoes with a dash of cream & lot of butter--or coconut oil! (I know that sounds funny, but add a dash of sea salt and some nutritional yeast and you have a very healthy potato that tastes good!)
 A sweet friend in Texas gave us a huge pack of Orange Glow Watermelon seeds, they are sprawling everywhere & are loaded with melons. We can't wait to eat them--have y'all ever had orange watermelon? 
 And in-between all this garden work we are canning, eating watermelon, (that comes from a local farmer friend) and working on writing and taking pictures for the fundraiser! 
It sure has been wonderful hearing from many of you! 
 I would love to share this story with you:
 A mom who left a comment on our Homestead Blessings Blog,  shared that her family really enjoyed our DVDs and that her young sons would watch the films and re-enact their own version of the Homestead Blessings DVD series, (which I thought was fun and cute enough) but then she said her boys even named their "show"--Boystead Blessings!! We were all reading the comment out loud and started laughing so hard we cried and had to hold our sides!!!  What a blessing! 
We love to hear from y'all! Please keep the comments coming!!!  We will do what we can to keep y'all posted. 
Over the last 2 weeks we have received many donations though Youcaring and through the mail, for our new home-raising quest, making the monetary total this morning: $4,244!  
That's so  great! Yeah!
 For the first phase of the building we need about $8,894.00 more. This will help us get our home up and dryed in!  
 A neighbor and friend has offered his work crew to do the actual work of drying the house in!!! Our home will be 960 square feet, plus porches.
So now we could use your help to spread the word for materials costs!
 
  HERE ARE MAIN MATERIALS FOR STAGE ONE:

  • POSTS                      
  • LUMBER   
  • CEDAR SIDING       
  • METAL ROOFING 
  •  DOORS
  • WINDOWS
  • 2 PORCHES 

Total price    13,138.00

  Yay!! This will get our home dryed in!
We are grateful for many of the other material donations.
  •  We have been given a large amount of old tin, for ceilings and wains coat . 
  • A friend has given about $1,000 worth of stove piping.
  • Another friend donated a nice enamel tub.
  •  Fence post, loan of tools for finishing, and a  great discount for  the materials  for framing and drying in. 

We will continue to keep the cost as frugal and low as possible . We are so grateful to you all for sharing our vision of our home building with your families, churches, homeschool groups, and other peoples . You can give them our links and blogs so they can be a part of this new Homestead Blessings adventure!
www.youcaring.com/thewestladies
https://www.facebook.com/homestead.blessings.9
Great to hear from all of you and please stay in touch! Thank you for your prayers- we are very blessed indeed!!!
Love and Blessings,
Vicki and girls; Jasmine, Cecilia and Hannah
4 Comments

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    We Love This Book!
    Learn the principles of cooking from scratch.This book will also help you be able to create recipes & substitute ingredients in others.
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