To be completely honest, I hadn't really thought about "going green" as far as my laundry goes until this past year. I've read plenty of blog posts about making your own laundry detergent and how it's much better for you and for the environment and thought to myself, "It would be nice to use more natural laundry detergent since my clothes are against my body 24/7". Problem is, I just don't have the time or energy to make my own detergent. Then I found Seventh Generation laundry detergent. It's got all the benefits of going natural and green without the time and effort of making my own detergent. Plus, the cost isn't half bad either! Now, let me make another confession, I'm not that picky about my laundry detergent and don't really notice the difference when it comes to various brands. I tried Seventh Generation laundry detergent and didn't really notice that much of a difference from the other laundry detergents I had used so I guess that's a good thing! One thing I can say … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2012
Paper Mache Easter Eggs
Easter was always a fun time for crafts for with family. My mom always had fun stuff for my sister and me to do. One of my favorite things was making paper mache Easter eggs. This year I decided to make them with my girls. Remember my paper mache maracas? Well, this is not one of those posts. These turned out absolutely adorable! My girls thought these were just as fun to make as I remember they were at that age. In fact, I still think they are really fun to make! To make your own paper mache Easter eggs you'll need: Flour Water Newspaper Balloons Paint Anything you want to put inside Step 1) Have your kids cut up newspaper into strips. Step 2) While your kids are cutting up the newspaper, use a mixer to blend four and water. Mix 3/4 cup flour to 1 cup water. Step 3) Cover your table with uncut newspaper to prevent the paste from getting all over. Step 4) Dip a strip of newspaper in the paste and slide your fingers down to get rid of any … [Read more...]
Homemade Heath Bars
These are amazing....enough said! My kids go crazy when I tell them we're making these tasty homemade heath bars. Here is what you need: cookie sheet tin foil saltine crackers 1 stick of butter 1 cup of packed brown sugar 1 bag of chocolate chips (the minis are the best) small package of walnuts Line your cookie sheet with tin foil and lay out enough crackers to cover the whole pan. You might need to break a few in half to cover the whole pan (depending on the size of your pan) *Parents need to do this part* Melt the butter and brown sugar in a sauce pan and then pour on top of the crackers Place in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes (just enough to heat everything up). Pour the chocolate chips on top of the pan and spread out with a spoon (the mini's will melt faster and spread easier). Sprinkle the walnuts over the whole pan and set aside until completely cooled and then enjoy! (FYI- these taste amazing at around 3am, tee hee hee) … [Read more...]
Make Rainbows on Your Walls
Technically it's still winter. The first official day of spring isn't until tomorrow. With the unseasonably warm weather we've been having in Minnesota over the past week however (80s in March!!), it's been feeling down right summerish! This has made me and the girls want to do things to get rid of those winter blues...so...in honor of St. Patrick's Day and to get us in the mood for spring and Easter in a few weeks, we decided to make rainbows on our walls. Making rainbows is great way to cheer you up no matter what time of year it is. It can even be done on a rainy day! You'll need: A glass pan or jar A mirror that fits in the pan or jar Water A white wall or ceiling (or white paper to cover a colored wall/ceiling) 1) Pour the water into your glassware. The exact amount doesn't matter. I filled ours up about half-way. 2) Put your mirror in the water. 3) Place it in a sunny spot. 4) Play with tilting the mirror until you see rainbows form on the … [Read more...]
Fun Stuff Fridays (#15)
Remember when Linkys were all the rage in blogging? They were a great way to find and get to know other bloggers before social media and Pinterest became mainstream. It didn’t hurt that they brought a ton of traffic to your site too. Lindsi and I started our Fun Stuff Fridays linky back in 2011. We kept it going for 20 weeks before it fizzled out (or we got sick of doing it, I’m not sure which happened). It is now soon to be 2017 and at lot of the links in those linkies no longer exist. Plus, I’ve let my link up subscription lapse so you can’t get to them anyway. Instead of deleting the Fun Stuff Fridays posts, however, I have decided to clean them up and make sure our featured links are still valid. After all, on a rare occasion I get traffic from one of these old posts. The linky may be gone but the featured posts are still valid as of December 2016… Welcome to Fun Stuff Fridays. We love seeing what our readers have been up to and cannot wait to share some of our favorites! … [Read more...]
Daylight Savings and the Pajanimals
Daylight savings time used to be a fun time when I was a kid. An extra hour of sleep in the fall and an extra hour of daylight in the spring. Now that I am a mother daylight savings time is a time I anticipate a bump in the road for my kids sleeping schedule. We're lucky that our kids sleep as well as they do; they go to bed at 8pm and get up at 8am. When we know the "change in the clock" is approaching we try hard to adjust their bedtime by 15 minutes each day. After a few days we've caught up to the correct time and things seem to be back on track. One great way to gear my children up for bedtime is by watching the Pajanimals on Sprout TV. If you have never heard of the Pajanimals before I'd highly recommend you check them out. They are soothing and calming and help my children relax and unwind before bedtime. Sprout TV is the only place where you can regularly watch Squacky (the favorite of my twins) and their friends. Furthermore, Sprout TV is the only 24 hour channel dedicated … [Read more...]
