DIY: Homemade Laundry Detergent

Cody and I have been wanting to make our own laundry detergent for a while now. We finally got around to doing it recently and I wanted to share how easy it is to make. It will save you tons of money in the long run. The start up cost for us was around $20. That is for everything, including a bucket to store the detergent in. After you have used up your first batch, you will only have to buy a bar of soap the next time. We got our recipe from Tip Nut. They have multiple recipes on their website for making laundry detergent. We selected recipe number one. Here is a step by step look into how we made ours...



Before putting in the melted soap, we added about 18 drops of the scented oil.
Kara's cat was very interested in what we were doing. He is such a cutie.


Above you can see that your detergent will become a gel. This is how it's supposed to be.
You need to keep your laundry detergent covered while storing it in your bucket.
This is why we bought a bucket that came with a lid.
On a side note, I am upset that I bought Arm & Hammer washing soda because they test on animals. I did not know this till my sweet blogger friend Aubrey told me recently. (Thanks Aubrey.) When you think of baking soda, your brain automatically thinks of that orange box that says Arm & Hammer on it. So if you want this to be a vegan (not animal tested product) you can just buy another brand of baking soda. You can actually bake baking soda to make it into washing soda. (link HERE.) Also Aubrey has a great recipe for laundry detergent on her blog that you can also check out HERE. We had a blast doing this and plan to make bar soaps and body washes as well. I like that there are options for everyone.

I am also fed up with buying animal tested products by accident. It angers me.
PETA has a list of companies who DO NOT animal test on their website HERE if you are interested.

WHAT? I'm 31 Years Old!

It's my birthday. Now I feel like I can officially say that I'm "in" my thirties. It doesn't really seem to have an effect on me in any type of a negative way. When I was in my twenties I would dread turning 30! I sure as heck don't feel like I'm as old as I am. (I do still wear Hello Kitty!) Lately I have also been thinking that if I could introduce myself to the 15 year old me, what would the young me think???

This year I have gained so much self esteem through my blog. Doing the outfit posts (as cheesy as they seem sometimes) has helped me feel more confident. Going Vegan has also helped me lose weight naturally which also makes me more comfortable in my own skin. I also started cycling this year. What a great year I had at age 30!


I can't wait to see how much more I grow and change this year! It's exciting. I feel like I have so much to live for everyday. Inspiring others, making them laugh and having a smile that I hope is contagious.


When I was in high school I dressed "different". I was considered "alternative" or some called me goth. I didn't wear a lot of black clothing though. I wore lime green platform shoes, vinyl and hardly ever matched. I'd wear pretty much anything from the thrift store. I find myself more and more drawn to the bright clothing as I get more confident with myself. In the past I used to only wear black. Now I pass all the black up when shopping. I would be making the 15 year old me proud. :)


When I was 15 I got picked on for the way I dressed. Now I get picked on for my Vegan diet. I still cry when I am bullied and my feelings are hurt. The difference now is that I have learned to stand up for myself. If you read my long blog post a few weeks back about being called an Obnoxious Elitist, you will be glad to hear that I reported the harassment to his supervisors. I stood up for myself because I felt it was the right thing to do. It is also expected of you to report stuff like this when it involves the military. I'm not sure what else will happen. I just hope he leaves me alone. That's all I want. He can eat his meat and I'll eat my veggies. End of story.


It's fun to watch yourself grow and change. I used to be so scared of change, but now I find it so exciting. Life is good and I feel it just getting better. What am I going to do for my birthday??? I am probably going to go thrifting. I love to shop and that's what I feel like doing. If it was warm I would bike.

Our Christmas 2012

When you are in the Military and you move away from your family, Christmas is a totally different experience. Every year we would be running around to different family gatherings non stop. Now we just sit at home and do nothing. It's sad, but we just make the best of it and enjoy relaxing. This is our second Christmas in Wyoming. Cody was on call and I'm not aloud to ask for time of work during December. (This is why we don't visit Ohio.) Also the highways to drive home can get really bad and they close them often. It's not the best time of year for any sort of traveling.
Barrett taking a look at the snow we got Christmas morning!

We spent Christmas Eve with our friend Kara. We drank tea and coffee and ate good food. We also made homemade laundry detergent. Something we had really wanted to attempt. (Blog post to come shortly.)


We ended up getting snow Christmas Eve night which was really pretty. We also got home from Kara's house to see that Santa had come. (The U.P.S. Driver) It kinda made me feel like a kid a again having packages waiting for you. Except these were outside covered in snow, not under the tree...


Our family tradition back in Ohio was to always open presents on Christmas Eve night, so that's what we did. This year my parents and I kept it simple and just bought each other ornaments. They got me the cutest Hello Kitty one. She is all decked out in PINK...


Norman enjoyed the bubble wrap that the gifts came in!
When I opened my present from my in-laws it took everything I had to NOT cry. They purchased me a Sea Shepherd cycling jersey. Which not only is something I really wanted but the purchase of it also goes towards a donation. I wanted this freakin jersey so badly! It's coming all the way from Australia and has not arrived yet, so they printed out the order form and taped a photo of it on the paper...


The jersey is actually made from recycled plastic bottles!! The jersey couldn't be MORE PERFECT for me. :) Also the same day one of my best friends in Ohio sent me a text message with this photo...


He made a donation to Sea Shepherd! That was my gift! How awesome.
My other best friend in Ohio sent me a panda stuffed animal from the San Diego zoo.
It is super cute! I really hope to make it to that zoo someday.
Christmas morning was so cold. The fresh snow that covered the streets was so beautiful. I love snow when I don't have to go outside or drive in it. It's so peaceful and pretty.


It's not Christmas if we don't watch The Christmas Story!

We drank lots of coffee and baked vegan cookies!
Then I decided that I wanted to go to the park to take a few photos. I know a lot of people don't get white Christmas's, so I figured we should take advantage of it. The only problem was it was SUPER cold. I had no gloves on. After taking about 5 minutes worth of photos my hands were numb and we headed back to our warm car. I do however have some pretty pictures to share with you...


There is a lake under all that snow!


I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

Meet The Meece's // My Pet Mice

When I was a child I usually always had some type of pet rodent. There is something about their cute little faces that get me every time. They melt my heart. I know some people are scared of rodents. I understand. I could never have a pet snake or spider. (My skin crawls just typing that.) I have wanted a hamster or gerbil for a while now. Cody had planned to surprise me on Christmas Eve with a pet hamster, but I figured out he was hiding something. Poor guy tried to surprise me. Over the weekend we stopped by the pet store and I fell in love with this little black mouse.



The other rodents just weren't as cute to me. I love his big ears and cute little face.


He was also the most active. Most the other mice were sleeping.
He also was the only solid black mouse in the entire cage.
I really thought all the black and white ones were really cute as well!


I was like a kid in a candy store trying to pick out a house for my mice.
Decisions, Decisions....


I ended up deciding on a 2 Story "mansion" for the mice. Ridiculously big and cute.


Of course I ended up getting a pair of mice because they are social animals.
I didn't want my little guy getting lonely.
I still have to name both of them.


I find taking photos of these guys is way harder then I thought it would be.
Why am I sharing these images on my blog in the first place?
Because anytime I can post anything that has to do with animals (especially cute ones) I will!
Simon is enjoying watching the mice...


Do you have any pet rodents? Or are you grossed out by them?

STAGING A BOOKCASE IN MY LIVING ROOM

When it comes to decorating, one of my favorite things to do is stage bookcases. I love setting up displays and arranging items. I thought it would be fun to show you how I came up with my newest display in our living room. Some people don't feel like they are good at it so I thought sharing my process with you may be helpful. If not, you can just enjoy my pictures hopefully. I started out with boxes up items! Everything from picture frames, vases, collectibles and sentimental things.


I started with unpacking items to get a feel of everything I had. It really helps when you can see it all together. Since my bookcase is white, I wanted to make sure I had pops of colors in my display so that things would stand out better. Since I decided to display my Vinylmations in BILLY bookcases on either side of my large bookcase, I wanted to make sure my display was somewhat simple. The Vinylmations are very colorful.


For this bookcase display I decided to do a layout that I felt was "mirrored". I don't think designers use this term for arranging items, but I just did. (Maybe I should trademark it. HA!) I like to keep things pleasing to the eye and balanced. That's basically what I mean by mirrored. I tend to always decorate using symmetry. Here is an example...

I numbered each shelf of the bookcase. Number 2 and Number 3 are "mirrored" to look alike.
Number 1 and Number 4 are alike.

In the first example you can see that I used books to give the items some height in the bookcase.
I used similar hot pink frames and sat a Precious Moment figurine next to it.
It helps to make both displays match each other.


You can see how I did it above with the white vases and the silver picture frames as well.
I like that the displays are similar but not exactly the same.
I think it's very pleasing to the eye. Below is a sample of how Shelf 1 and 4 match...



I realize it may be harder for other people to have such a matchy look because they don't have as much stuff as I do.
(I swear I am not a hoarder.)
I am hoping this is helpful and inspiring.
My bookcase has a total of 8 shelves. Here is what my finally display looks like...



I am very happy with how my display turned out. It makes me happy! :)
Here are some more pictures, because I love pictures...

The California crate was left behind by the previous home owner! YAY!


The Precious Moment figurine above belonged to my aunt who passed away earlier this year.
She had a huge collection of them and I always remember as a child that the "one in the bathtub" was my favorite.
It makes me smile every time I see it.

I like to collect buttons and pins...


One of my favorite photos of my friends and I from over 10 years ago!
(Geez, I'm old!)
You can also see the photo on the right of my dad and I when I was around 4 years old!


So what do you think?
Doing displays are so fun to me. Putting things together and layering them.
My best advise would be to just try different things. It took me hours to get this display to look a way that I loved.
Use books, frames, art, collectables and vases.
Mix it up and have FUN!

Next step for my living room is painting some artwork!
You can see other bookcase displays I have done in the past by clicking HERE.
Tour my home HERE.