Housewife and happy

Now that our daily routines are starting to work themselves out so too is my daily routine. However I do still manage to get side tacked very easily, so I sought out some daily and monthly cleaning routines to see if it helps me. Today hubby gets home and comments first thing about how tidy the house is looking. I followed a cleaning routine from start to finish and the results were happy housewife alright! I managed to get the house looking spic and span in no time. So I have stuck the routines up to see if its something I can maintain and if ultimately it works. I got my routines for daily cleaning here and monthly cleaning here. I'll have to adjust and add some tasks here and there, but it pretty much covers everything. So along with all that I also whipped up a few quick cleaning products that are nice and safe to use around my family as well as some more of my favourite homemade laundry liquid.

Dragon fruit flower, next to see if it fruits. Fingers crossed.

Ginger starting to look like its getting ready for harvest.

German Pickling cucumbers that just seem to grow like crazy - everywhere. Very hardy.

My basket bounty - just a regular day,

Red Mignonette Lettuce seeds I saved.

The garden just keeps on keeping on. Admittedly not as much seems to be happening at the moment. Everything seems to be relaxing a bit for the next growing season. My seedlings got a little feed of seasol and have sprung new leaves so they seem a bit happier. I wonder though if they were a little stressed and perhaps now wont be so plentiful - live and learn I guess. Our dragon fruit has set of a single flower again this year, so hopefully it will soon follow up with a beautiful fruit. I do wish I could grow more fruit here. we certainly go through it, though the main fruit consumption does not seem to grow so well in this area. I sometimes feel we are in the worst spot for fruit growing being not quite hot enough for tropical fruit and not quite cold enough for the well cold kinda fruits. I have a nice bunch of paw paw's coming on, but the tree doesn't seem to get enough sun during the fruit ripening stage so takes forever and then the possums get to them before me anyway! In saying all of this though, I am going to start adding a fruit tree collection just to see if I can grow them. They will all live in pots so that I can move them around, but I guess they wont get that big - which is OK as I dont really have the room anyway.

Making Laundry liquid.

My favourite way to roast a chicken.

Tortillas for dinner tonight.

Local Honey we buy, made/collected at a High School near Hubby's work.

Hubby's latest obsession - He will guest post soon too, so keep your eye out.

Homework.

Puzzles with my boy.

Mostly I have been spending my days blissfully getting around my home, taking the kids off to school and other lessons as needed. The comfort of my own place appeals to me so much, that I often feel I could just stay home and keep myself happily occupied for days and days. I used to feel that I had to be out socialising but the stress of keeping that up just wore me out and now I quite contentedly just do what I want when I want and we all seem so much happier for it. The kidlets have developed a lot more independence and desire to find things to do for themselves and if they make a mess or break something its not so bad, its our place after all. Time to go and bake some school muffins, talk soon. x

Making Soap

 Soap for me was not as hard as I first thought.....But then I hadn't really thought about making my own soap until I read about in Down to Earth by Rhonda Hetzel and now I have made it twice. It takes me longer than usual because I mix it by hand with a whisk as I don't have a stick blender (yet), nevertheless making soap feels so right to make and then eventually use. A word of caution first when making soap - if it is your first time (or anytime after if you prefer) use protective equipment as you are working with caustic soda and it will burn your skin if it comes into contact with it. I am lead to believe soap cannot be made without it, though I haven't looked into in too much yet as I am quite happy with my first results.

Soap essentials.

Items you will need:

Safety equipment:

• latex gloves
• goggles/eye protection
• mask

Soap ingredients:

• 460g olive oil
• 600g rice bran oil
• 440g coconut oil
• 570ml rainwater/filtered water
• 230g caustic soda
• essential oil for fragrance (optional)

Soap making equipment:

• lined baking trays, soap moulds or any other non-aluminium container that will allow you to set and shape the soap
• glass measuring jug
• pot
• mixing bowl (non aluminium)
• whisk or stick blender (don't use electric beaters as it splashes)
• scales
• sharp knife
• drying rack

Measure ingredients accurately.

Making soap:

• Ensure the room you are working in has good ventilation. Put on your safety equipment and cover your work space with newspaper for protection.

• Grease your moulds - spray oils works great, or use ordinary oil and paper towel and wipe over.

• Weigh your oils and warm in a pot until temp reaches around 50 degrees Celsius.

• Measure caustic soda and water, carefully adding caustic soda to water and not the other way around. This will heat up very quickly and fumes are created. Mix until dissolved.

Caustic soda when combined with water gets very hot.

Cooling the oils and caustic soda on a window sill.

• Once oils and caustic soda mixture are between 45 -50 degrees Celsius carefully add caustic soda into the oils and start to whisk/blend. If you are using a stick blender it should only take about 10-15 minutes, however I used a whisk and spent at least 30 minutes whisking. A great workout for the forearms I can tell you that!

Oils combined to caustic soda looks smooth and creamy.

Mixture at 'trace'.

• When ripples begin to form on the surface and stay there you have reached a point called 'trace' and this means the soap has become stable and ready to pour into moulds. Caustics soda is mostly gone by this point too.

Coconut shreds from Hubby's coconut cream making added in an attempt create an exfoliating soap bar.

• If you wish to add fragrance or anything else like flower petals or coconut granules (like I did in this attempt) do so now.

• Pour into tray or moulds and allow to cool. Leave somewhere to set slightly for about 12-24 hours.

Soap poured into trays to set.

• Take soap from moulds and cut up into desired shape with a sharp knife and place on a drying rack.

• Leave to cure and harden for 4-6 weeks depending on size. Turn the soap every other day so they dry out evenly. The drier they are when you use them, the longer they will last.

Soap cut up ready to dry out.

And that's basically all there is to it. There are plenty of other recipes out there and I think every time I make soap I will try something a little different. Make sure if you are creating your own recipe you have the right oil to caustic soda ratio right otherwise it wont work. There are lots of soap calculators out there, but I haven't used any yet so feel free to let me know which ones are the best to use. I will also share when I find great recipes and the sorts with you too! Have fun and let me know how it goes when you try it.

Homemade Laundry Liquid

I've been waiting to make this for a while now, just had to finish all the store bought laundry liquid first. I have been saving the bottles too for a while which is just as well because this recipe makes 

10 Litres! Its so easy.

Items you will need:

• A large stock pot or bucket
• 1 1/2L boiling water
• 1 cup Lux soap flakes or grated laundry soap
• 1/2 cup washing soda
• 8L cold water
• Whisk
• Bottles (I saved my old laundry liquid bottles - could use milk bottles)

Instructions:

Mix boiling water and Lux flakes in a large pot with a whisk until dissolved then add the washing soda and whisk again. The water will instantly start to thicken. Add cold water bit by bit mixing as you go until you have added the rest of the cold water. The liquid will continue to thicken as it cools and can separate. The more you mix while it is cooling the smoother the consistency will be.

Pour the liquid into saved containers and fill almost to the top. Leave a little space to shake before use. 

Use 1/4 - 1/2 cup per load or whatever works for you. 

This liquid is suitable for front and top loader washing machines and is also safe for septic tanks and grey water.

You could also add a few drops of essential oil to make it smell pretty.

And that's it! Simple, environmentally friendly, oh and cheap to make too. I think a box of Lux costs about $7, washing soda about $3 and I only used a fraction of it so plenty left for the next time. I'd say 10L cost less than $2!!!

The rain has stopped now so back to the garden to plant out some more of my seedlings which I will share next time - oh and our new girls too.....

Homemade Spray cleaner

Today I made a homemade 'spray and wipe' version, toxic free and kind to my family and our environment as well as being cheap and easy to make . I used it to clean the gas stove top which was really grimy and I honestly think it was way better than the store bought chemical yukky stuff!

Home made spray cleaner.

All you need is.....

• 1.5L of water - 1 cup of very hot water
• 300mls of white vinegar
• 60mls dish washing detergent (try for plant based)
• 25mls eucalyptus oil 
• 3tbls lectric washing soda powder

Carefully mix the washing soda with 1 cup of very hot water until it is dissolved. Add the reminder of the ingredients into a clean 2L bottle and fill the rest with cold tap water and shake well. Fill a spray bottle - I re-used my old 'spray and wipe' bottle and store the rest out of reach from little ones.

This can be used on kitchen benches, sinks, toilets, laundry stains, washing freshener, tiled and vinyl floors, showers and carpet stains. It also removes stickers and sticky bits. Just spray and leave for a bit then wipe off.

Don't use on timber surfaces as it could damage the finish.

And don't use on mirrors as the oil will leave the mirrors streaky.

Hope you like it xx