Johnson Home of Eastern North Carolina

Homemade Laundry Detergent   After reading somewhere that a household can spend close to $700 a year on various cleaning products, I decided I could do better. I am a huge Gain laundry detergent girl. Got it from my Mama. I've never used anything else. Well, since we're down to one income, I'm willing to put my brand-snob aside and give this a try.    I believe in giving credit where credit is due. This is not my recipe. I got the idea from  http://www.howdoesshe.com/cheaper-and-better-diy-laundry-detergent/ . I did, however, change somethings up.  Here's how I made my first batch: 1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax 1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 2 (14.1 oz) Bars of Fels Naptha 1 (4 lb) Box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda 1 (13.2 oz) Bottle of Downy Unstoppables Optional Ingredients that I did not use: 1 (3 lb) Container of OxyClean 1 more (13.2 oz) bottle of Downy Unstoppables 2 bars...

DIY Coasters   Living on one budget makes life a little tight, especially around the holidays. I love to shop for people, wrapping their gifts, and watching them open them. I'd rather enjoy this than opening my own gifts… even though I AM appreciative of their gifts to me. This past Christmas season was a little depressing knowing I wouldn't be able to spend much money on gifts. So I had to improvise and seek out the help of Pinterest. Duh.   I kept seeing my friends post the DIY coasters. Use scrapbook paper, your own pictures, wax paper, print sayings, etc. I couldn't figure out which one would be the best and actually work as a decent coaster. Let's be honest, drinks condensate and that's precisely the reason for your glass needing one. So I didn't want to make these simple "just use scrapbook paper and mod podge and presto! You're done!" They didn't seem legit to me.   So I began experimenting and eventually came up with a great gif...