Stink Stick Trials

Remember way back, when I got that bed from the ReStore and promised photos once it was done?! It's been finished for a while now, but I never did get around to the photos. Until today...

TA-DA!!!

<3 how it turned out!!!

I have a few projects lined up for around the house today that I have been meaning to get to. Unfortunately a nasty bought of the stomach flu at our house postponed them all. {I wanted to have everything done before Cousin Erin's arrival this weekend.} There has been more puking in this house in the last 5 days, then the last 2 years at our other house. How we survived with only 1 bathroom and 7 sick people is beyond me. But, I know this much...a 2nd bathroom is at the top of our house project priority list! There was a lot of yelling, crying, desperate pleading, and outright threats to vacate the bathroom ASAP. I won't go into detail about how bad it got at one point, but we have learned one thing...the family that pukes together, stays together. For no other reason than to make sure those stories NEVER make it out to the general public!

I came across a new shampoo recipe with coconut milk I plan on whipping together today, as well as a homemade deodorant people all over the internet are raving about {for both men and women!}. I was especially interested in the deodorant, because I am allergic to the aluminum in most store bought kinds. I had been getting some great natural stuff at Whole Foods for years, but it's getting harder and harder to find. I figured best to try out this homemade stuff to see if it really works before the heat and humidity of Wisco summers hits.

Coconut Shampoo:

1/4c. coconut milk

1/3c liquid castille soap (I'm using my lavender stuff)

1tsp vitamin E, jojoba, or almond oil

10-20 drops essential oil (I plan to use a mix of rosemary and lavender)

Homemade Deodorant:

1/4c. baking soda

1/4c. cornstarch

2tbsp. coconut oil (you can find it in the natural foods section, and use it in place of shortening when cooking. It's solid, but has a low melting point)

10-20 drops essential oil (tea tree or lavender are best, as they have antibacterial properties)

*Mix the baking soda and starch together well in a bowl. Add the drops of essential oils. Lastly, stir in the coconut oil. The recipe says you could use more or less, depending on the consistency you would like. You can either store it in a jar and smear it on {YUCKY}, or form it and put it into a clean recycled deodorant stick. From what I've read, you should keep it in the fridge during the summer so it doesn't melt. It supposedly goes on smooth, doesn't leave marks on clothes, and offers long lasting protection...even on guys. We shall see!*

I also plan to spend some time down in my art studio this afternoon shortening some curtains for my kitchen windows and doing some melted crayon Star Wars paintings to finish off my boys' awesome bedroom. Larry the Storm Trooper is gonna be pretty sad having to stare at the blowing up Death Star painting that will hang across from him on the wall; we hear he had friends on it. :( 

Oh, did I mention that several of the seeds we started this weekend have already sprouted? The packages all said it takes 7-14 days for that to happen, but we started seeing them poke through in just 3. CRAZY!!! So far we have little pumpkin, tomato, cucumber, green onion, hot pepper, kohlrabi, lemon cucumber, basil, chive, thyme, cat grass, cat nip, wildflower, poppies, black eyed susan, painted daisy, red hot poker, and hollyhock seedlings. Wow, that was a mouthful! As Tyler said this morning; looks like we're officially gardeners. 

It's FINALLY Spring-ish!

Well, apparently I really suck at regular posting to the blog. I mean to sit down and write something, but inevitably some kid calls for me or I realize there is a load of laundry I forgot to throw in. Maybe it's time Tyler make good on his plans to write once in a while. :)

As usual, we have been busy with tons of projects. Spring it seems has finally arrived in Wisconsin- my windows are even open today. However, I say that tentatively, knowing a snow storm could hit at any moment. And, can I just say how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE daylight savings time?! I really do. It's light out longer; and it means sleeping with windows open, sipping sangria on the porch, and nights of grilling on the patio are soon upon us. YAY!!!

Last weekend Tyler got busy and made our vermicomposter bin. I had meant to take pictures to post as directions for anyone who wants to make one, but he did it while I was busy making vegan cupcakes for our daughter's sleepover. Honestly though, it's soooo simple I bet a monkey could do it. Seriously! First order your red wiggler worms online. Get two of those plastic storage tubs; one needs a tight snapping lid. Drill about 6 small holes into the bottom of the bin with the lid. Line the bottom with cardboard and place it inside the other bin without the lid. Next add a few sheets of shredded/ripped newspaper to the bottom of your bin. Spritz it with a spray bottle so it's nice and damp. Don't soak it! Your wormies will be very unhappy if their environment is too wet or too dry. Add a layer of nice organic top soil (about 4-5c). Last, top it off with whatever rotted veggies forgotten in your fridge crisper, egg shells, coffee grinds and filters, apple cores, etc you have saved up. We added our worms into the bin once everything was in place and gave the whole thing another good spritz of water. Now it's up to the worms to do the rest and make us great compost for our garden. Make sure to check your bin every few days, spritzing with water as needed and adding your household scraps and newspaper shreds. We're keeping our bin out in our 3 Season room until it is warm enough for them to go outside.

{Note: Don't put meat, eggs, dairy or fatty/greasy things into your vermicopmoster. It will make your wormies unhappy and cause a foul stink}

Where did we get out wormies you wonder? Vericompsters require Red Wiggler worms, so you can't  go dig some worms up outta your backyard. I called the UW-Extension of Agriculture to get their advice on where to go. Every company I saw on the internet I could order Red Wigglers was either from Canada or down South. I wanted local, and I really wanted not to have them shipped. The UW-Extension did help us find a worm farm in Wisconsin, but I ended up having to order them. We used Wisconsin Worm Farm (www.wisconsinwormfarm.com). You order your worms by the pound, and there are approx 1,000 per pound. Yep, 1,000. The total price, including shipping, was $31.34. I ordered them Friday afternoon, they shipped Saturday, and by last night our new pets were all happy in their new home. Now the hard part...coming up with 1,000 names and keeping them all straight. ;)

We also got the garden started this weekend in 4 72 ct. seed starter boxes. Our hopes and plan for this garden have grown a lot larger than originally thought. For two people who have never had a successful garden before, we are most likely over doing it. Our veggie garden plans include:

kohlrabi, lemon cucumbers, a carnival sweet pepper mix, heirloom tomatoes, regular cucumbers, zucchini, scallions, garden beans, casper pumpkins, and a hot pepper mix. Our herb garden plans include: lavender, chives, sweet basil, cilantro, thyme, and catnip & cat grass for our lovely kitties. We also seeded some flowers for our front yard and window boxes. Those include: black eyes susans, red hot pokers, ornamental grass, painted daisies, sunflowers, and a wildflower mix. Fingers crossed we are even mildly successful growing any of these this season.

A reminder to all our Madison readers that the CSA Open House is coming up this Sunday at the Monona Terrace from 1-4pm. Join a local farm and get a box of veggies delivered to you each week during the growing season. Several farms have events and picnics for members, and some even let you camp on the farm over night. There are also options to get cheese, eggs, meat, and fruit, or get your veggies delivered every other week. The CSA coalition offers assistance for those who are low income & even take food stamps for payment. You can also agree to work one four hour shift a week at many farms to receive your share free. Several health insurance companies offer their clients rebates for joining {Dean, GHC, Unity, and Physicians Plus}. Check out the CSA website for more info about the farms, pricing, and rebates {www.csacoalition.org}. And good luck choosing a farm, cuz they are all awesome! We've been trying to pick just one for over a week.

Lastly, thinking about putting in a rain barrel like us to water your garden over the summer? May 12th at the Alliant Enegy Center you can go purchase one from the city of Madison. The sale runs from 9am-3pm. The rain barrels are $55, and come with everything you need to attach them to your gutter. They even have a faucet you can attach a garden hose to. 

Diving In Both Feet First

Decided to take a lil' break from painting a life-sized storm trooper to do some blogging.


I've had several requests on Facebook and through email, as well as some badgering from family members, to post my recipes for dishwasher detergent and laundry soap. So here they are-


Laundry Soap:                                                     
2 bars Castille or Fels Naptha Soap grated                        
2c. Borax                                                            
2c. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda                 
1c. Baking Soda
*Use an old laundry scoop to measure, or about 1/4c per load.


Fabric Softener:
6c. Distilled Water
3c. White Vinegar
1 bottle Sauve or White Rain Hair Conditioner {any scent}
Add water and vinegar to a pot and bring to almost boiling. Remove from heat, and stir in the bottle of conditioner. Let cool and store in an old fabric softener bottle, or other pourable container. Use exactly the same as store bought fabric softener.


Dishwasher Detergent:
2c. Borax
2c. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
2. Lemi Shine
1c. Kosher Salt
*Use same amount as commercial detergent. Add 1-2 drops dish soap to really dirty loads. Throw in 1/2c. white vinegar, too.




I should mention that I make my laundry soap in bulk and store it in my old 5 gallon Costco laundry bucket. With 5 kids we are ALWAYS doing laundry, and I don't want to ever run out of laundry soap when I need it.  We also have a household full of people with sensitive skin, so I tend to use the Castille Bar Soap (organic baby formula). You can get the bars at Woodman's or Whole Foods for around $1.29 a bar. I know some people use Ivory Soap, too. There are recipes for liquid detergent out there, but I personally have never been a fan of that. I prefer powder, and find it works better with our hard water.


Some of you may be wondering what we did with our romantic kid-free weekend. No, I will not over-share. ;) Really, we did a lot of errands! We visited the UWP Meat Market Outlet in Middleton for the first time. We used some Christmas money to stock our chest freezer. Tyler is especially excited about the 7lb pork loin he gets to cut up into chops for the grill and the 20lbs of meatballs we got to go with my homemade marinara sauce. They have a great inventory, at really low prices, if you have the space to store everything and the time & energy to break the meat down into family-sized servings. We won't have to buy any meat from the store for the next several months. YAY!


We made another trip to Menard's to get everything we need for our garden. Today we will be building our new worm composting bin to fertilize the garden. According to my father-in-law, next week we need to start several of our seed varieties in the seed trays. I am no gardener, so I'm a little nervous about how successful this will be for us. I have high hopes, despite my last two garden attempts ending up solely in death. This year we are going to give a go at growing  zucchini, cucumbers, a carnival sweet pepper mix, beans, and white casper pumpkins. We also got a pack of fun hybrid sunflowers for our lil' ones to try growing and chives, cat grass, and basil for Tyler. I wonder if we are being a bit too ambitious this year?!?!? Oh well, I'm not usually happy unless I've gone way overboard anyway.


Our final errand was to the Habitat Re-Store where we found everything we needed to build the separation wall for our oldest kiddo's room, off the rec room. He was a bit tired of sharing a room with younger brothers and getting a lil' too old to anyway. Now he gets a portion of our rec room, once we hang the partition, as his very own room. He is more than excited!


Sadly we were so tired after all the running around, we decided to forgo a night out at our beloved Old Fashioned to stay in, cook, and watch a BAD movie on Hulu. I made us a Potato, Leek, and Chicken Pie...which was DELICIOUS!!! We shared a bottle of wine and snuggled on the couch. Believe it or not, it was really nice. The simple quiet moments truly are my favorites!