Homemade Laundry Soap - 1 year later review and updated recipe

So, a year ago I adopted this laundry detergent recipe.  It says it will last a whole year and it really does!  And I love it!!  I just made a few changes this year.  So, here is my updated recipe: 

Here are the ingredients.  

And here are the things I changed: 

First of all, I miscalculated the size of the canister I'd need, so I upgraded to this larger size.  I really love these canisters from {Target} and I use them to store flour and sugar as well. 

The other thing I changed about my recipe is that instead of using a normal cheese grater to grate the soap, I decided to try a zester to get the pieces as small as possible.  It worked like a charm.  I set up my bucket and grater like this and my third time doing this was definitely a charm.

The reason I made this change is because sometimes my washer had a hard time disolving the larger soap shavings, especially on a cold water cycle.  The smaller pieces seem to dissolve much easier.

Once the soap was grated, I just threw all the rest of the ingredients into the bucket and mixed them all together.  And it rubbed my hands raw...so next time I'll be wearing gloves for that step. 

Anyway, the result is a wonderfully beautiful detergent that looks and smells like summer. 

I ended up using the smaller canister to store my Oxiclean White Revive which I add to loads of white laundry in place of bleach.  I really love that stuff.  It does the trick without ruining anything! 

There you have it!  All in all, this laundry detergent costs about $20-$30 to make, and it lasts for a whole year!!  That's a pretty good deal, if you ask me.

Little Hands Mother's Day Card

Last year, I made a Mother's Day card for my our Nana aka Grandma using this idea from {A Day in My Life}:

We put the hands inside the card, and used stickers for the letters.  It was really cute and, she LOVED it.  So, this year, I thought we'd better do another hand-made card - pun intended.

 I love sticker letters!  Makes it so cute when the little ones put them on!  And you don't have to worry about them messing it up too bad. haha. 

I adore the upside down "r", in fact.

  I think she'll love it.

 

 So, we traced their hands again, and folded the fingers around flowers for Nana.

 

I helped him cut circles with our circle cutter, and then cut slits in the sides to make petals.  Then we glued buttons to the middle.  It was a pretty easy flower, and I think it has a super cute effect when all together. 

 

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Letter Z Week

{We Love Being Moms}

Put Letter Y up on our {ABC Wall}

Learn to draw V with {Confessions of a Homeschooler} and {Kids Learning Station}

Make a Z Zebra like {How to Run a Home Daycare}

Eat Zoo animal cookies, hotdogs cut into Zs, Zucchini, Zebra cakes, Zero candybars, and things with Z drawn on them.

 Make a handprint Zebra like {Craftulate}

Make Zucchini Bread.

Watch Zoo Keeper.

Make a Zig Zag racetrack and have a tournament.

 Visit the ZOO.

Letter Y Week

{We Love Being Moms}

Put Letter Y up on our {ABC Wall}

Learn to draw V with {Confessions of a Homeschooler} and {Kids Learning Station}

Make a Y Yak like {Crystal & Co}

 Make a handprint Yak like {Red Ted Art}

Eat Yogurt, Yams, Yellow cake, drink Yoohoos, etc.

Watch Yogi Bear

Make Yarn Dolls and play with YoYos.

 Visit {Yesterland Farms}

Go to Yamatos or the YMCA.

Letter X Week

{We Love Being Moms}

Put X up on our {ABC Wall}

Learn to draw X from {Confessions of a Homeschooler} and {Kids Learning Station}

Make an X-ray X like {Counting Coconuts}

 Eat Xs made with pretzels, cheetos, carrot sticks, fish sticks, cheese, veggie straws, etc.

Or eat cheese Xs on crackers.

Sort through Lucky Charms to find all the Xs you can like {The Beautiful Thrifty Life}!

Play tic-tac-toe

Make a Handprint X-ray Fish like {Red Ted Art}

Go on a Treasure Hunt where X marks the spot!

Go on a Field Trip to Xerox

Letter W Week

{We Love Being Moms}

Put W up on our {ABC Wall}

Learn to draw W from {Confessions of a Homeschooler} and {Kids Learning Station}

Make a W Watermelon like {Counting Coconuts}

Eat watermelon, waffles, wheat thins, whales crackers, water, etc.

Make a Handprint Walrus like {Red Ted Art}

Go to Walmart

Watch Winnie the Pooh

Learn about George Washington

Make George Washington hair like {Sandy Toes and Popcicles} but with cotton balls

Go to a Waterpark!

Letter V Week

{We Love Being Moms}

Put Letter V up on our {ABC Wall}

Learn to draw V with {Confessions of a Homeschooler} and {Kids Learning Station}

Make a V Vase full of Violets like {Counting Coconuts}

Make a handprint Vulture like {Red Ted Art}

Eat Vegetables, V8, Vegetable soup, and Vanilla things.

Watch Valiant

Make Valentines

Have a Valentine's Day Party!

Visit the Villages.