Lemony Lemon Fresh Garbage Disposal Tablets

Once again I have taken a Pintrest found pin & changed it up a bit. I saw this pin while just browsing & loved how cute the packaging was but also loved the fact that I have bought many items in the past to keep my garbage disposal nice and clean, why not just make my own?! 

My thought process behind these ingredients was mostly making a tablet that actually smelled for a long time and gave me that rich lemon smell when I used it. I also had read on the side of the washing soda box that you can use it to clean out drains. So I thought that would be a great addition!! I also added the Lemon EO to really add that strong wonderful lemon smell on top of the real lemons. I have read you can freeze lemon & vinager ice cubes, In my next version of this recipe im going to lightly chop up the entire lemon & add it to the tablet. I also am going to try either a orange or grapefruit scented one. ( Stay Tuned for those Recipes! ) For now im very pleased with this recipe & hope you all enjoy it too!

 Lemony Lemon Fresh Garbage Disposal Tablets

Recipe:

1 1/2 C-Baking Soda
1 1/2 C- Washing Soda
2 C- Kosher Salt ( needs to be a course type ground )
2 Teaspoons- Liquid Dish Soap
4- Lemons
4 Tablespoons- Lemon Essential Oil
For a added boost, you can add a splash or two of vinegar along with a tablet to give it a foaming action & a boost of cleaning power!

PLEASE NOTE: I split this into 2 separate bowls and combined them at the end, its really hard to mix this much quantity at one time, you could certainly just half this recipe too.

1. Combine Dry Ingredients and make sure is a smooth ( not clumpy ) powder.

2. Zest/Grate the entire outside of the lemon into the dry mixture. The more you get off and into this tablet, the better cleaning power and smell you have. Mix that well.

3. Add the dish soap and mix well
4. Juice lemons and add this to the mixture ( if you get a few seeds in the mixture no biggie ) *It will fiz, that is normal *

5. Add the Lemon Essential oil & the mixture should take on a wet sandy type mixture. The color is absolutely amazing and i think the smell is even better!!

6. Take a Tablespoon measuring spoon and squish/mashing it full of this mixture and scrap off the top, then drop these half size balls on to a parchment covered cookie sheet. This is where they will stay until the dry. Make sure you put them in a low humidity area ( for me it took about 24 hours for them to be dry) 

This full recipe made just enough to cover this cookie sheet. 


I then packaged them up in a glass cookie jar. I got this jar at Walmart for a few bucks ( i cant remember now )

Thank you for stopping by and reading! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! It makes a WONDERFUL! House Warming Gift, Christmas or just about any occasion! Let me know what creative ways you have packaged them up!

Here i posted some really cute ideas for giving this as a gift:

Gift Giving Ideas

DIY Boutique Flower Hair Bow Clip

This is a project I had done this past spring. I was trying to find those HUGE boutique flower hair clips for my daughter for her first birthday. Most of not all were upwards of $15! I was in shock, So like usual i set off on pinterest to find a solution! I ran accross this post & was SOOOO excited!     http://www.skiptomylou.org/2011/02/16/silk-flower-hairclip/

She did an amazing job of explaining it all and kind a no brainer! One of those, Wish i would have thought of that!! So i got 2 peony's on bogo at Joann's & followed instructions and was SOOOOO pleased with the results. It was exactly what i was wanting. I did end up going with some really blingy buttons and recently found a whole bunch on clearance so i can't wait to make another. i will make sure and document that step by step and share! Here are some pictures of my girlies wearing the peony's i did. I would also note that for little girls with fine hair like my oldests, make sure you use either a clip with "claws" and/or grosgrain ribbon so it holds in their hair. These flower hair clips are kinda heavy.    Someday i hope to get really creative and make some very unique ones for my girlies, that is if they are interested in them :-p

BELOW:

This picture is Kendall sporting the pink peony with her birthday dress on her first birthday!

DIY Borax Free Dishwasher Detergent Tablets * Testing Stages*

Please Note: I'm still in the testing stages of this project, Keep checking back for updates & posts.

Diy Borax Free Dishwasher Detergent "Tabs" 

I only caught on to this idea about 2 weeks ago when the store bought product was leaving a gross FILM on my daughters sippy cup parts. I will add that I coupon quite religiously and get store bought tablets for CHEAP! & we have a water softer in our home that drastically softens our city's hard water. That being said we STILL experienced this annoying film. I have always tried to provide my family with Natural or Organic forms of everything. I recently switched from natural cleaners to the E-cloth & Norwex cloth and im sold so the idea of switching my dishwasher detergent to a more natural form is very appealing but only if i can afford it! Natural/Organic dishwasher detergent is generally not cheap and very hard to coupon for in my small town. 

SO, that being said, I started researching like CRAZY all the different homemade detergent recipes out there ( on Pintrest ) & compiled a list of promising recipes & then read the comments on each one and determined what ingredients from each i liked and wanted to try. First i want to start by saying this is a Borax FREE recipe, I had read sooo many mixed feelings about this product that I just left it out based on the POTENTIAL of it being harmful & reviews saying it ended up leaving a film. Now to give you an idea of what brought this all on, as a extremely basic test I just put my daughters sippy cup parts in the dishwasher and dumped a bunch of baking soda at the bottom and ran a "1 hour wash" my dishwasher had this feature. . I was trying to see if that on its own would even help. Much to my SURPRISE! it cleaned them to sparkle clean ( wish i had taken before and after pictures of this ) So i was sold purely based on this because if this one ingredient alone would work im sure the addition of others would only boost the cleaning power.

So off I went to compile ingredients. I decided on using: 
*TEST #1 Recipe Pictured Above*
-Arm & Hammer Washing Soda ( this was only found in 1 store in my small town, Albertsons)
-Arm & Hammer Baking Soda ( a sub for borax )
-Lemon Essential Oil ( for the amazing scent and its excellent properties, I purchased Now Foods Lemon EO )
-Lemi shine ( i only have added this because it was on sale but here is a post on a great sub for this:  http://seekingjunecleaver.blogspot.com/2012/10/diy-all-natural-lemishine-substitute.html , I have seen this combo used in many different recipes for a sub to lemishine )
 -White Distilled Vinegar ( this is also used a rinse agent when added to that little dispenser in your dishwasher OR i read some people just splashing a little before each wash, Im not sure with it being mixed in already if you can skip this part)
****I also will say my dishwasher is Stainless Steel & after researching that thoroughly I determined these ingredients would be safe for it, I HIGHLY recommend you do your own research on the effects of these ingredients your in dishwashers tub just to be safe****


I also had found people using silicone and plastic ice cube trays VS just making a powder. The tabs seemed SO much more convenient and I LOVE the idea of the silicone tray. Now I do not own any ice cube tray, silicone or plastic. So trying to keep in a budget i just went with a pack of 3 from Walmart for $1.89. Im hoping to find some silicone trays second hand. A issue i have ran into with the ice cube one is they don't fit in my detergent holder, I have to break it up in to a few pieces to get it to fit.  

 I then documented the regular cycle and what conditions i was using to wash with this batch. OCD? Perhaps but this is a fun experiment for me. I also havent been able to empty my rinse aid out of there yet so I think once that finally empties its self my results will fluctuate as well. I have never done any pre washing or rinsing. I also dont ever wash my dishes by hand. I dont feel like i can get the water hot enough to disinfect my dishes well enough.  

 So here are some shots of how beautiful my dishes came out!! I just did my 2nd batch today as well & couldn't be happier. Now i have seen some reviews where the first couple weeks are mind blowing and then you start experiencing issues. So im holding out all promises just yet.

 NOTE: How much cleaner the sippy cup parts look! I could not be happier with the results!

 I packed up the tablets in a wide mouth mason jar ( i was using for a drinking glass until now ) & I will post pictures in a week or two with more results of how this batch is working. Before I call it good im going to do a batch with the salt & citric acid instead of the lemi shine. I also have read ALOT of people use unsweetened lemonade kool aid in place of the citric acid ( that could also sub the Lemon EO since you get the smell, but not the benefits so kinda up to you) I hope i haven't made you sleepy yet haha, I would love to hear your ideas as well! Never know what secrets others have come up with. Thanks for reading & stopping by! 

Happy 7 Years!

My Hubby & I have been married for 7 years! We are on a tight budget so I was trying to come up with a way to honor our special day without spending a dime!! So i created a card using my silhouette cameo machine ( you can follow my cameo blog here:  http://silhouettecameodreams.tumblr.com/ )  So i created a simple design & kinda personlized the embellishments. I used whatever paper i had so you can change this and customize to say your wedding colors or something of that nature.
I made the seven from school glue and glitter, the box is a silhouette cut out shadowed with the blue. The bird paper is just scrapbook paper. I also added a strip of black ribbon to kinda make it look complete.

 I also went back to our roots and wrote him a poem straight from my heart. I wont bore you with what it said but it was an emphasis on our past 7 years of marriage. 

 I added a black background to the white to give it some dimension & Pop.

For the "gift" I remembered running across our "love letters" we saved from when we were dating so i "wrapped" those up and picked 2 special ones for him to read. I also made a "gift tag" from the same paper i put on the front of the card. Overall I think he appreciated it and it was fun to relive our past. Happy 7 Years Babe! I love you! =)

DIY Vanilla Orange Homemade Diaper Pail Deodorizer

I got an idea to create a deodorizer after experiencing a horrible smell coming from my Diaper Gene diaper pail.  Maybe my daughters poo is exceptionally horrible or this diaper pail just doesn't work that well! Anyway i searched Pinterest for a solution and after not finding any! I went to work on Google hunting down some ideas. I ran across this blog post http://annesoddsandends.blogspot.com/2012/04/make-your-own-diaper-pail-deodorizer.html & made it! I was happy with the results and made it again today, only thing i have changed is the scents. Lavender EO is quite strong & gave me a crazy headache last time i used it so I started brain storming on scents i loved! Vanilla & Orange, So i purchased a small bottle of Vanilla Fragrance oil as it is not an official EO. I paid about $5 from amazon.  I had the Sweet Orange EO already on hand from a EO kit but you can also buy it on Amazon as well. ( I live in a very small town & EO are rare to find and if you do, they are EXPENSIVE so I LOVE Amazon! )

Recipe ( From Anne's Odds & Ends Recipe):
-Start with 1 Cup of Baking Soda ( give or take depending on your container size )
- Add water till you create a paste or slury ( if you get too much not to worry, it will dry )
-5-6 drops for every 1 cup of baking soda ( more less if you want a faint or stronger smell ) Your favorite Essential Oil or Fragrance Oil ( I used Vanilla for my first batch & Sweet Orange for my second small batch & then i will mix both together for vanilla/orange)  

I went to work this afternoon & they turned out amazing! I will update this post with the container i used to store these. As of now they are drying nicely on top of my freezer in the garage. Filling it with an amazing scent =)

 I highly highly recommend this recipe! I will also be working on a wonderful packaging and labeling for this to give away at baby showers and welcoming new babies to families. I would love to hear what all of you have used to deodorize your diaper pails with and please share them! Im always looking on how to improve my homemade items =) 

Thanks for reading!! 

 Please Note: I don't Cloth Diaper my kiddos so the scents and the source of your scents will more than likely need to be adjusted.
 

My small beginings * UPDATED Sept. 17th*

Hi Everyone. I have started this new blog in hopes to document and someday have a full fledged blog. I recently have turning into "suzy homemaker" with the help of Pintrest, yes dont we all LOVE that site!" some more than others :-) . I have been so excited to share all the things I have made and created with inspiration from all the other blogs floating around. I wanted to do a short and sweet introduction. Im a SAHM with 2 beautiful girls ages 3 & 1. I live in Wyoming & think my area of the US of A needs a blog like mine =) I hope everyone enjoys my posts and together we can create a booming blog!! Please feel free to "pin" anything from my blog! I would love to inspire others! 



UPDATE Sept. 17th

I wanted to share a little more of my inspiration for this blog. Over the past few years & especially 2013, I have really "blossomed" if you will. I went from being terrified of cooking(and other things too) and really taking hold of this housewife kinda of life style. I have been given MANY cookbooks and honestly have never wanted to try anything. My wonderful hubby Ryan is an amazing cook & with that comes trying to make something for him a challenge to say the least. I was happy not having to cook, i would clean up and he would cook. Believe me, he tried to convince me to cook but it was too scary. I signed up for Pintrest and for months never really got into it & slowly started paying more attention and then was inspired to create 1 or 2 recipes from it to see if i could even do this cooking thing! I had some epic fails but built on some very tiny successes, I have picked Ryan's brain and really started going for it. I created 1 dish for him that he had NOTHING to say but good things ( this is rare ) It was a homemade crunch wrap ( simple I know! ) but that really got my wheels spinning and i have been really doing well. 

I have defeated ALOT over the past year and becoming more confident in who i am and what i'm here for. My biggest hope is to inspire my girls to be the best wifes and mothers they can & the confidence to pick men who will appreciate it! I hope I can inspire just a few people to do the same. Its so liberating to have a passion & a drive! the name "two2 precious" is dedicated to my 2 wonder girls Shelby & Kendall ( and hopefully 1 or 2 more children ), I came up with the name while watching them play together and how precious they are to me. I also have this crazy drive to make tutus for them for just about everything special occasion while still trying to keep them not so girly hehe. I love you girls & my wonderful husband Ryan!