Domesticity

I've been an absent blogger lately.

Fleur was home with a tummy bug & Ash all week with tonsillitis

Imogen has had a very sore thrushy bottom & thrushy mouth...which became sad thrushy boobs!

Boo hoo! And now she has decided that her maximum sleep during the day will be 15 min & waking 3-4 times a night...Bliss....NOT

And to top it all off, the house my lovely thought he'd be building in 2 weeks time, which was going to be our saving grace, has fallen through...Grrrrr

So now there are all sorts of crazy ideas being thrown back & forth. A friend of ours has suggested he try out for work with him, great money but away 10 days & home for 4! Whilst myself at home with the 5 babes. I'm not too keen.....super woman I am not!

On a brighter note, I have actually been doing a little bit of 'stuff''.

In the name of thrifty-ness I have made some rather styley dish cloths out of some old towels and over locked some nice cotton fabric onto one side. They work great, were FREE & look fab hanging over my taps!

Inspired by old towels I made Imogen some super styley bibs using the same principles.

Ta daa

I have also made a merino blanket for bubs which looks rather crap in the pic, but is cool I assure you (blowing my own horn she says) Its green on the other side with a green birdie. We are lucky to have a very neat factory shop down the Kapiti coast way,about 45 min drive, which is a merino knitwear shop. End of line & factory seconds, you get top quality merino for between $5 & $15 a metre. I have just got some neat mustard, sage, charcoal & black to make the kids some leggings...which leads me to another exciting thing...I have just discovered PDF patterns on Etsy. I know..I can hear the words slow & retarded being thrown at me, but this was rather exciting for me, I'm looking forward to making some winter coats for the girls.

One last thing before I become domestic goddess again & return to my mountain of washing,

I wanted to share with you a very cool & extremely cheap recipe I found here for making your own laundry liquid, & with Rhonda's permission I am sharing it with you:

Laundry liquid:

1/2 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

1 cup grated soap (i used a cake of sard wonder soap but you can use anything really)

1.5 Litres of water

Essential oils ( I used 1 Tbsp of Lavender & 1 Tbsp of eucalyptus)

you don't need to add these if you're after an unscented product.

8 litres of cold water

Put the first 4 ingredients into a pot and bring to the boil, then gently simmer until the soap is dissolved.

Put this into a plastic 10 litre bucket and add cold water making the total up to approx 9.5 litres. Add your essential oils & give a good stir. Then pop into containers leaving enough room for it to be shaken as it will turn to a gel consistency. I kept mine in a lidded bucket, & refill an old eco store laundry liquid bottle as the cap measure is around 1/4 cup, what I use for each load.

This stuff is fantastic, very cheap to make. Safe for front loader machines. Smells fab & lasts our house of 7 for 3 months.

Happy brewing.