Homemade Laundry Detergent

For the past several years I have been trying to "go green". However, I sometimes feel like I am a walking contradiction of this movement, it has not always been easy. For example, we purchased cloth diapers (Bum Genius brand) in hopes that our baby will be wearing them until she didn't have to anymore. She did get some use out of it, but then we were doing laundry so often and to clean the poo, just got really tough for me, so I stopped. I'm not sure if the money spent on the diapers were worth it. Although to my surprise there is a market for used cloth diapers.

Sometimes, it's a money issue that dictates whether I can do things "greenly" because the stuff out there that is marketed green tend to cost more than the regular stuff. I do what I can and I hope that counts for something. Like, I stopped buying paper towels altogether, and instead use dish towels that I purchased at Ikea for very cheap. Thanks S for showing me the way. I also use the Brita water filtration system, again thanks to S for this idea. I also recently made my very first batch of laundry detergent. It not only is saving me money, but I can actually pronounce every single ingredient that is in there.

I've researched on the internet for recipes and picked the easiest one. All pure and natural stuff and it works the same as the old stuff I was using, the very pricey Mrs. Meyers brand.

Recipe below.

Powdered Laundry Detergent
2 cups finely grated soap (any natural fragrant-free soap will work)
1 cup washing soda (purchased online at drugstore.com)
1 cup borax (purchased from Target)

1. Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.

2. Use 2 tablespoons per full load.

I tripled this recipe to fill my tupperware container. One thing all should know this detergent will not produce any sud. Also, if you want some kind of scent, you can add a few drop of essential oils in your favorite scent to the dry mix.

It's My Party

In honor of yours truly turning 30, I threw a Fall Harvest themed dinner party for a few of my closest friends. You may be wondering why I threw a party for myself, baked my own cake, and what not? control freak? maybe, but truth is entertaining is what I love to do, so why not gather a bunch of my closet friends and celebrate such a momentous day in my life.

Corn husks centerpieces: This was a super inexpensive and easy way to add color and class to a table. I reused tin food cans that I have been saving, purchased some corn husks from a Mexican grocery store, about $4 a bag, but you a get a whole ton husks. I wrapped the husks around the cans and tied it off with some yarn. I then wrapped the yarn several times around to add color and anything soft like yarn makes you feel all warm and cozy. It works well for a crisp autumn night. The flowers I purchased from the local farmer's market.



The soup bowls were purchased from Crate and Barrel, I also plan on using them for an upcoming Holiday Open House I'm throwing in December.



The napkins were dish towels, something that I have a lot of around, since we said bye bye to paper towels about 5 months ago.


Even though it's Southern California, It still gets pretty chilly out at night, therefore I wanted to help make sure my guests stayed warm, well at least the ladies, so I gave each girl a pashmina shawl to wear during dinner and it was hers to keep too.


As my birthday cake, I made pumpkin Whoopie Pies from the cookbook Baked. Since it was potluck, a friend had made apple pie for dessert, so I just packaged the Whoopie Pies for my guests to take home as party favors.

As Seen On

I was delighted to see that Raffaella's first birthday party was featured on Hostess with the Mostess blog today, a blog I totally adore. I have always been able to count on them for inspiration, ideas and resources when it comes to partying planning.


Be sure to visit them the next time you have a party to throw.

Our Little Lady

October was a such fun month for the G-Family. First off, we celebrated the Husband's b-day at Disneyland, it was Raffy's first trip and she got to meet Minnie and Mickey, just 14th months old and she can already say "Minnie" in the sweetest little voice, it just melts my heart. I got to do some autumn inspired baking, I made some caramel apples, pumpkin whoopie pies, and apples cakes, all were delish. I got the recipes for the Whoopie Pies and Apple cake from my favorite person, Ms. Martha.

Then there was Halloween and Raffy all dressed up like a ladybug.

This was the second year I made her costume (last year she was a Grecian goddess), and I think I will make it every year because it was so easy and what else, FUN!

I purchased the turtleneck bodysuit from target for $4. I also purchased the black tights for about $4 as well (not shown).

I sewed the wings that I made from felt onto each shoulder. Felt is such a great medium to work with.

The tutu was the most time consuming aspect of this costume. I used a sheer red fabric for the top layer of the skirt and added several layers of tulle for the underneath portion to give it volume. I hand stitched every little polka dot on it as well.

Here she is:

Raffaella's First Birthday Party

Our baby girl turned ONE on 9.6.09 (can you believe it!) and we had a mini celebration with just the rents'. However, we had a bigger celebration with more family and friends on 9.12.09. It was such a sweet celebration for a very sweet little girl.


I drew inspiration from various wedding planning blogs such as Style Me Pretty and party blogs like Hostess with the Mostess. Until I finally settled on a Parisian/Garden theme. I have been dreaming up her party for months. It's a big deal for me because this celebration was not only for her, but for us as well, after all, as parents we survived this first year =).

I wanted to make sure it was sophisticated and girly, but also had some kiddish elements of being a one year old's party. We held it in our back yard to keep cost down. I rented chairs and tables, umbrellas, and linens from a party rental place, that took up almost half the budget, but it was necessary. I knew that I wanted to focus on decorations and setting up, in which case, my execution of those projects would have been a complete failure if it weren't for some amazing friends who came through and helped out so much.

In order to stay focused on my projects, I decided to leave the food up to the professionals, so as much as I love to cook and bake, I had it all catered. To stay with the French theme, I had ordered Macarons in seven different flavors, and Madelienes for the dessert bar from my favorite local bakery Patisserie Chantilly. And the Piece de Resistance, were the Cream Puffs. I opted for delicate cream puffs instead of a traditional cake or cupcakes because of it's French connection. I sat it on a makeshift tiered cake stand and placed it on some moss to keep with the garden theme.


The cheese platter was one of my proudest moments, I hand picked the best french cheeses, displayed them on a slate platter. I labeled each cheese with broken terracotta pieces that I had rubber stamped the names on it. I picked up this idea from Danny Seo's Simply Green Parties book.


Ahh the ever-so-trendy Martha Stewart Pom Pom balls made there way to the party as well. They are just too cute and simple enough to make that I could not resist. I have to fully disclose that yes, they were easy to make, but to make 17, took for freaking ever, I enlisted a friend to help me finish about an hour before the party started and she was still not finished when the first, second and third and fourth guests had arrived, god bless her heart though, because she did not give up until she had every last one of them suckers hanging.


For the table-scape, I purchased some jars and vases from Marshall's and planted ferns and orchids, I made sure I had gravel for drainage and covered the unattractive soil with Spanish and sheet moss. I wanted to stay away from cut flowers because they are pricier and fade pretty quick. Oh and I added artificial butterflies to give some color to the centerpieces



The hubs put together a playlist of modern French lounge music and we had it streaming during the party. He also did a nice little slide show that looped on the Plasma inside the house, so guest can catch a glimpse of our cutie pie.

A great time was had by all, including the beautiful birthday girl!

All the amazing photos above were taken by my friend, professional photographer Brian Khang.

Terrariums

Back in May, I had visited some family and friends on the East Coast. It was Raffaella's first introduction to the family and it was a lovely trip overall. During this trip we had a chance to visit my best friend S in Boston. Aside from being an awesome hostess, she has a lot of great DIY ideas. I always get inspired when I visit her. This time, I was inspired by her terrariums, she had several on display. So of course when I got home, I made my own.

I'm not a green thumb so I chose succulents as there is no way I can kill them (knock on wood) and added Steve's lego guy for some whimsy. Making the terrarium was really simple and fun. I actually made several and they happened to be closed terrariums and the mosses did not fare so well, I guess it had too much moisture in there and I was not able to remedy the problem until it was too late.

For the terrarium pictured above. I used a large glass jar, sans lid, poured in some gravel, then added charcoal (the kind you use in fish tanks), then added soil, planted the succulents and adorned it was rocks and the lego guy. The rocks I used were the ones my dad had collected for me at the beach one year when he was out visiting us in Cali. This terrarium is very special to me, since he is not longer with me physically, it is my way of still having him present.

Copy Cat

Finally my end tables/cookbook case is finished. I had commissioned my father in law, a few weeks ago, to build me an end table like the one I saw in a West Elm catalog. Their end table was going for about $300, but he was able to do mine in solid wood for $50 for 2 tables. What a deal.

To make the end tables, he took 4 2x4 boards, cut them to size, glued them together, and ran it through his planer. Running it through the planer gives it a smooth surface, and makes it look like it was one solid piece of board. After it was all put together he let it dry for a few days. Normally when building furniture, you should get dry wood, so it won't shrink, but since the Home Depot only had fresh wet wood available, (they sell them so fast that they don't have the chance to sit there and dry) it was something we could not have avoided. After they dried out for a few weeks, he primed it, sanded it, and then left it for me to paint. I painted it this intense teal-ish color from Benjamin Moore's Natura line of non-toxic, fume free paints. 3 coats of a semi-gloss paint was what it needed.

I usually go to him when I need something built because he has all the right tools and is rather handy with wood. So when I showed him the picture of those end tables it was easy breezy. Although I had to wait a few weeks to get them, it was worth the wait.

They are really sturdy, holds all the cookbooks we own, and look pretty darn good!

each end table flanks opposite side of the dining room window, this one shown is to the left of the window

Candy Leis

I have two nieces that are graduating this June. I have older siblings with a large age gap between they and I, so I have nieces and nephews who are in their teens already.

Both are off to colleges with full scholarships, woo-hoo for my smarty pants nieces. It's tradition to give leis for graduation ceremonies, but they aren't in Cali, so what to do? The floral leis will be too costly to ship and they won't stay fresh, for but a few days. Instead of spending the money on the leis and paying for shipping, I decided I would just gift them with that money and make candy leis for them instead.

Who doesn't love candy? I'm sure they would appreciate it and I made extras so they could give some their friends or something. I saw this done some where a long time ago, but not sure where.

Anyway, I just bought a bunch of candy, cellophane wrap, and ribbon. Well, in this case I used what ribbons I had lying around.


Step 1: take the cellophane wrap and cut the length you want, I made mine about 3 feet long. cut the ribbon into 6 inch pieces, cut about 15, you have some extra, but just to be sure you have enough. The size of the candy will dictate how much ribbon you need, but you won't know until you try it.

Step 2: lay the candy the entire length of the cellophane, being sure to lay it in the center, and be sure to leave at least 3 inches on each end, also space the candy about 2 inches apart to reserve room for the ribbon tie, well depending the candy, for a mini Reese's cup, you could leave a smaller space.

Step 3: wrap the candy up, by rolling the cellophane.


Step 4: this step can be a little tricky, now tie ribbon around the cellophane where you left a space. the candy will probably shift when you pick up the cellophane to tie it. but there is room to wiggle the candy back if it falls out of line. now tie the ends off by overlapping the cellophane


Voila

Family Photo Shoot

We had our family photo shoot not too long ago and here is one of several pics that our photographer friend Brian Khang released.


They are such lovely photos that I must order and get framed. I am ashamed to say that I really don't have many family photos or photos in general on display in our house. Digital is to blame, ever since we have been using a digital camera, we don't bother to print them. I want that to change though. Anyway, you can check out more at his website.

Larb Gai : Chicken Larb

When I make this dish, I really just add ingredients based on taste, so I don't really know what it measures out to, but I'll try my best to estimate how much of each ingredient I use. The tastiest Larb Gai ever. It should serve about 4, but if your like me then it's really only 2 servings.

The Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, I used skin-on with bones, only to save money, but I still have to remove the skin and bones, however, you can splurge on the boneless, skinless chicken breast to save time.

Roasted Rice Powder, make your own before hand, make enough so that you can use it several times

Roasted dried Chiles de Arbol

1/2 teaspoon Sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 cup Chicken Stock

1-2 tablespoons Fish Sauce

3 or 4 Shallots, sliced

Handful chopped Cilantro

Handful of mint leaves

1/2 a lime

Green Cabbage, slice up to garnish, but you actually can eat this garnish with the larb

Fresh Thai Bird Chiles (optional, it doesn't really add much more to the taste so I only use it when I have some growing)

I wash the chicken, dry it off and mince it. Then throw it in a 10in skillet, add the stock and cook for about 8-10 minutes. Once it's cooked through toss it into a mixing bowl and add the dried rice powder, dried pepper, dried chilies, sugar, mix. Then add the mint leaves, cilantro and shallots, mix. Then add the fish sauce and lime juice from squeezed lime half. Presto! you got yourself some authentic Lao Larb Gai.

Serve with some steamed rice or sticky rice.

How to Jazz Up a Gift

So I attended a future cousin-to-be's bridal shower this afternoon. The theme of the party was clearly written out on the invites, lingerie and more lingerie was requested by the bride. So it was probably obvious what my gift would be, but to jazz it up and make my gift stand out. Yes, believe it or not that's important to me. I took a plain square kraft box, that you can get at Joann Fabrics for a few bucks, cut up some silk flowers and then hot glue them to the box in which ever arrangement that floats your boat. Very simple, took me about 10 minutes, then I tied it off with some organza ribbon.

The silk flowers can be used to make the rehearsal bouquet after wards.

Happy Birthday Raffaella

Happy birthday to me!! I am six months old today. Mom got me my first chocolate cupcake to celebrate this special occasion. I'm not sure if it tasted good or not because I was only allowed to touch the frosting. Don't worry it did not go to waste, mom and dad scarfed it down later.



Life is good......

Fun With Fungi

I love Martha Stewart and all her wonderful ideas. I especially love this particular arrangement she has on her website. It even has a step by step of how to make it. It would make such a cool centerpiece for a dinner party welcoming spring or something. Of the course I think mushroom needs to be on the menu at this dinner party.

*sigh* If I had the time or money to throw a dinner party I would totally do this, but for now I will stash this in my future to do pile.

Nursery Art for Cheap

I know, all my posts so far have been baby related, but I can't help it. These days I draw most of my inspiration from her.

Back when Beanie Babies were all the craze I had the husband eat as many Happy Meals as he possible could just so I could get the mini beanies. Of course I collected them in the hopes that they would some day be of value down the road. Boy was I wrong. Collector's item or not they still have a place in my home.

This is a cheap and easy way to make instant art for a nursery. I bought the white shadow boxes from Ikea. They were probably $6-7 each. I used white felt for the background. And the mini beanie babies I had already. You can probably used any small plush. The beanie babies are great because the animals are pretty realistic. I used velcro to help the beanie babies stick to the felt.

I made a total of 8 of these shadow boxes, however I only keep 3 on display above her changing table and plan to rotate them out once in a while. It's really attractive and educational as well. The colors really pop off the white background and my daughter loves looking at it when I am changing her diaper.

you can get creative and add some props as well, but keep it simple so it won't detract from the animal

Raffaella's Nursery Featured On OH DEE OH

A few months back even before she was born I submitted some photos of her nursery to Oh Dee Oh, a web-blog about home, design, and children. Now that she is almost 5 months old, she gets her very first feature. This is very exciting--I'm so proud of this project and I want nothing more then to share it with the world.

Since we spend so much time in there, I'm glad it is such a calm place, but yet has the right amount of stimulating elements that is needed in a nursery for a child to thrive. The husband and I put a lot of thought into how we wanted it. Everything would have to have a purpose.

The peacock decals over the crib? It's best for safety reasons to not put anything over the crib because it can fall and injure a baby lying in there. The decals look kind of like a crest or something. Someday I may get a tattoo of a peacock and have the letter R next to it =).

We selected 6 different shades of FLOR tiles in two different textures, so when little Raffy is lying on the floor she'll be able to feel the differences in the textures.

The drapes were homemade. I bought plain white sheets from target and added moss green ribbon to give it some dimension. I used the sheets instead of buying fabric by the yard because since the sheets already had finished seams, it saved me time from having to sew every single seam.

Some other things we did that aren't shown in the photograph was the magnetic chalkboard on the closet door. Bought magnetic paint and chalkboard paint, it was that easy. We also had my father in law build a bench/cubby thing (similar to the Land of Nod toy box), painted it pink and inside a contrasting lime green. We store toys, books, and blankets in it.

Raffaella's Birth Announcement

While I was pregnant with my little one, I knew that I wanted to make rather than purchase her birth announcements. After researching online at what kind of announcements were out there and receiving a few announcements from friends, I did not want to go the generic route. I'm not saying that those weren't nice, they just weren't unique enough for me.

I mean, I only have one chance to introduce her and I really wanted to make quite the impression. Of course when she made her entrance into this world, I did not realize how little time I would have to do anything except care for her 24/7. So the announcements did not go out until she was about 3 months old. She had already morphed so much from the photo we had taken of her at 1 month old. I didn't procrastinate, it just took me that long to make them. I worked on the components of the announcements at night when she slept, sometimes on the weekends when I can have the husband watch her.

I've been wanting to do silk screening for quite some time, so what better time to try it than on her birth announcements. I went with the theme of the "Year of the Rat". I thought it would be cool to silk screen an image of a rat, so I found an image I liked off the internet. I visited Craftgrrl's blog to get the step by step on how to silkscreen. I found the whole process really easy.

The cardstock, I purchased from Paper Source, some of the supplies I got from Joann Fabrics and a local art supply store.

tracing the design onto the screen/then filling in the negative parts with a paintbrush using Modge Podge glue

using a silicone spatula to apply the paint onto the screen