Clean and homey

I feel bad it has been so long since I have updated this page but everything has been incredibly busy and incredibly wonderful!
I am not what we call a crunchy person. .. but I am learning so many things in the art of home keeping lately that it makes me excited to tell you all the wonderful things I am learning.
I hate cleaning bathrooms,  and hate scrubbing things even more... I mean come on who wants to spend the day with chemicals and strong odors and a sponge that seems to do no good? Not me.  But then thanksgiving came.
I hosted thanksgiving twice this year. Once for our friends and once for my cousin and her family, the closest and only blood relatives able to travel and spend the holiday with us.
Thanksgiving was awesome by the way.  But Friday evening I learned what is possibly the best cleaning secret on the planet.  Baking soda!  Yup. This amazing cooking substance also scours pans, counter tops, teapots,  and glass electric stove tops!
Just a small pile of this lovely stuff a wash cloth, and a tiny bit of water and a but of elbow grease.  And all that built up cooked on, stuff that even the amazing  Dawn dish soap doesn't lift, is magically done forever! Well until you cook it on again anyway.
So after that amazing discovery I had to use it on EVERYTHING! And use it I did! But my fascination did not stop there... There had to be other tricks no one ever told me...
Pintrest helped out by giving me a list of cleaners I could make on my own. I have only tried one but it was so simple and wonderful I fell in love!
1 tablespoon dawn dish soap
2 quarts of water
1\4th cup of vinegar. .. Mix well and store in a spray bottle. .. works great for so many things.  Pintrest said it was a glass cleaner and yes it works great on glass, windows mirrors you name it, but what else? Apparently carpets!
My daughter spilled my delicious mint flavored hot chocolate on my carpet.  I SUCK at carpet stains and totally freaked out. Normally I would make my husband clean up the mess so it wouldn't stain, but he wasn't home. The only option left was to try to clean it myself.. I grabbed a wash cloth and the first cleaner I could find which happened to be this mix, spray spray spray and like one of those fake commercials the color of the chocolate on my off white carpet completely disappeared,  and I mean completely.  I sapped gently with the wash cloth and it collected the chocolate color and my carpet was left amazingly clean! Now I will say it was not an old stain I don't know if it would work on a old stain but I can say I am SOLD on making my own cleaners!
That of course could not stop my excitement,  I quickly budgeted a few extra things into my grocery list and made my own laundry detergent!  And yes I am totally sold on that too!  I followed a Recipe that includes Borax, washing soda, baking soda,  and gain crystals with Fels Naptha Soap that I grated with my cheese grater... and u will be using this mix Forever!  Only thing I would change is the amount if gain...next time just 1 bottle instead of two, the smell is good but too strong.
The rest is history!  I am turning crunchy by accident!