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So, remember way back when I wrote about my new favorite coffee cups from Repurpose Compostables? Well, guess what? New now have even MORE products available to you green-minded folk.
Just in case you’re not a hot beverage drinker, Repurpose still has you covered. How cool are those plant-based, renewable, BPA-free, compostable cold cups?
Oh, same thing goes for that set of 24 forks/knives/spoons. Just in case you’re planning any sort of casual party. A post-Labor Day picnic? An autumnal harvest fest in the brisk out of doors? Who knows. The world is your oyster when it comes to these awesome and earth-friendly products.
Oh, and to sweeten the deal, I want to be sure that your house is decked out in adorable, in addition to your new Earth-friendly table. Why the powers that be at Repurpose gifted me with these fine products to send your way, I’m going to toss in a $25 One Kings Lane gift certificate, too.
image courtesy One Kings Lane, natch.
So, if you want some high-quality, low-impact products for your dining pleasure, use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter! Entries must be received by midnight, EST, on Thursday, September 6th!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Oh, um, hi guys.
Sorry for disappearing for the last week or two. There have been a few changes in my life since my last post, and things just got nuts!
The 31st is actually my last day at the job I’ve had for the past three years. I’m going to a really cool marketing firm, for a job that might have some awesome implications for my blog and all my blogger friends. Not sure how much to reveal here now, but keep your eyes peeled for news!
As a round up of the last Weekend Warrior link party, here are three of the most popular links submitted!
Strawberry Lemonade Cookies from Back For Seconds
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Pineapple Cake Pops from Pint Sized Baker
Dinosaur cookies from Munchkin Munchies
If you want, you can grab this button to show off that you were featured on the Weekend Warrior Party!
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And if you want to show off where you “party” on a page, you can use this guy:
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Ok! So here we go… after much delay, the third Weekend Warrior Party begins!
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When I was little, I called strawberry Nestle Quik milk “bunny milk.” I wonder why…
image from The Strawberry Project
That particular canister is from the 1970s, but I remember the ones from the 80s and 90s looking fairly similar. Do you remember the pop off metal lid?
While perusing through the grocery store, I picked up a canister of strawberry Nestle Quick thinking– I bet this would be a GREAT flavor for cupcake icing! And I can call them BUNNY CUPCAKES!
Since the star of this here show was going to be the icing, I was once again a-OK with using a cake mix for the base. We bought this chocolate cake mix from Trader Joe’s a while back, hearing it was DIVINE.
Um. It’s possibly the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had.
Seriously, they’re dark and moist and not at all bitter. Glossy and shiny. Even nekkid, they were good enough to eat!
Once they cooled, I set to mixing up my Bunny Icing. This makes enough icing to generously cover 12 standard cupcakes.
- 1 stick room temperature butter
- 2 2/3 c powdered sugar
- 1/3 c strawberry milk powder
- 1/2 T vanilla
- Milk or light corn syrup on hand
- Food coloring to aesthetic pleasure
- Start by whipping your butter to smooth and fluffy.
- Add your powdered sugar
- Test for consistency– mine was a bit loose at this point, which is a good thing.
- Add your milk powder, then a bit of vanilla. The vanilla will boost the strawberry milkshake flavor.
- If your icing is too thick, add the milk or light corn syrup until it’s the proper consistency.
- I added a big blob of gel food coloring, because I needed that eye-searing shade of unnatural pink.
OMNOMNOM. I made them on Saturday and we’re down to two left in the fridge.
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You know, instead of doing what we SHOULD be doing…
Hi, Everyone!
Thank you so much to those of you who participated in last week’s Weekend Warrior debut. A grand total of six links (that weren’t me!)
Now, I totally want to feature one or two of the projects that came by to share:
How awesome are Kayla’s Upcycled Sandals?
And Fauzi’s DIY Mail Organizer… I need this.
And Sinea over on Ducks n A Row is mealplanning for a REALLY good reason!
If you want a blog button, here you go! I kind of am new at this, so tell me if the button is awful :-)
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And if you want to show off where you “party” on a page, you can use this guy:
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Alright, that’s it! I’d love it if you shared your “Weekend Warrior” projects below!
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So, yesterday I talked all about DIY room refreshers… today it’s all moved to the laundry room. Yeah, we went Little House on the Prairie and totally made our own laundry detergent.
Oh, I know it looks fancy.
David’s sister Judith (who, by the way, blogs over here) has been making her own soap for her family for a while now, and David got bitten by the bug. He ordered all the “ingredients” off of Amazon, and got to making the brew over the weekend.
The making-of process takes a full 24 hours. A low-stress, totally hands-off 24 hours.
- 1 bar natural soap (we used Dr. Bronner’s Lavender scent)
- 1 cup washing soda
- 1 cup borax
- 5 gallons water (give or take)
- Large pot
- 5 gallon bucket (washed out!)
- Essential oils (we used Bergamot and Lavender!)
- We start at the kind-of weird beginning. Take a cheese grater and grate your bar of soap until it looks like parmesan cheese.
- Fill a large pot with water and boil. Add the soap a little at a time and boil until everything is dissolved.
- In the bucket, mix together 4 gallons of water, washing soda and borax. Stir until dissolved. Add the water/soap mixture, and stir until combined.
- Cover the bucket and set aside for at least 24 hours. The mixture will eventually solidify and combine, leaving you with soap!
After 24 hours, you’re going to have 5 gallons of laundry soap *concentrate*. In order to use, dilute the soap by half with water, and use 1/2 cup of the diluted solution per load.
In order to have better access to our soap, we punched a hole in the lid of a mason jar and inserted a pump, like so:
We’ve literally been using a shot glass to measure out the soap for our washer! We aren’t the
cocktail Friday house for nothing. We’ve been scenting each individual jar of soap with drops of essential oil.
Oh, and for natural fabric softener, we’re eschewing sheets and using these guys:
I. KNOW.
Have you ever tried to make your own soap?
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My house… my house is tiny. And I share it with two big dogs. Those are the *two* main reasons why I need a DIY room refresher.
When it’s hot like it is, and we have the AC running full blast, we keep most of the doors and windows closed to make sure the cool air stays in the house. That means, our approximately 800 square foot house gets the funk. The doggy, puppy funk.
We’ve bought stock of Febreze candles, we’ve open the windows at night and yet… puppy smell. All the time.
I went onto Pinterest to try to find some DIY solutions. And I found an idea that ultimately became:
Pretty straightforward, right? It’s a DIY room refresher, made with really inexpensive “ingredients” pulled from around the house!
- 1 small canning jar (with 2-part lid)
- 1/2 cup baking soda
- Essential oil
- Scrap fabric
- Pen
- Scissors
- First, put half a cup of baking soda into your jar. Seems obvious. (This is a great craft to do if you recently made cookies taht fell flat. That’s probably because you’re using old baking soda and it’s now inert.)
- Next, add 6-12 drops of each essential oil you want to use to “flavor” your baking soda. David did this part, and used French lavender and bergamot. Bergamot is the main flavor in Earl Grey; our mixture smelled like a piping hot mug of tea with a hint of relaxing lavender.
- Then, you’ll want to make your lid. Trace the lid disc from your canning jar lid onto a scrap piece of fabric. Then, cut it out, making sure to make the circle larger than your lid.
- Make sure the fabric is sitting taught on your jar, then screw on the lid band, securing the fabric between the metal O and the threads. Voila.
This little jar of awesome sits in David’s office, where he spends most of the day being snorgled by two dogs. Whenever he needs a breath of fresh air, he just gives it a shake and … ahhhhhhhh. Fresh air.
The essential oils were pricey– I think $8 for the lavender and $12 for the bergamot. You can probably get them for cheaper online; we just went down the road to the hippie-dippy natural food store and got ours from their “aromatherapy” section. Be sure to get essential oils, and not perfume or massage oil! Totally different things.
I’ll have another project using essential oils tomorrow. It’s even more squeaky clean than this one!
