DIY Painted Rock Garden Markers

My sister and my nephews have been here for a visit this week.  They brought us some river rocks and paints, paintbrushes and spray sealer.  We've been painting markers for our gardens and herb beds.  It's been fun! 

My brother-in-law, Andy worked for a landscape company one summer and they blessed him with 2 big bucketfuls of rocks.  Lora-Joy and Landon made some of these last year for their garden.  They decided to make more this year.  So, we planned to make a day of it while they were here.  They shared these great rocks with us!  

Here is what you'll need to do this project yourself:

River rocks of any shape or kind. Really could be any type of rock.  This is what was left in the bucket when we finished.

An assortment of acrylic paints and paintbrushes.  

It really doesn't matter the brand of acrylic paint.  As you can see we had a mish mash of all kinds.

Some kind of acrylic spray to seal the paints and protect from weathering.  We had 2 different kinds.

Then you need a nice large space to work on with lots of newspaper and paper towels.  There will be lots of messes if I am involved, or there are any children participating in the project! :0)

And, you'll need a space outside for spraying that is dog-proof and toddler-proof--like this.

 The only other thing you need is to give your artistic side a good massage...get those wheels all lubricated for beautiful painting and creative ideas!

And....here is what you will get (or something similar anyway!)

Lora-Joy and her family lost their beloved dog this year...so they did a memorial rock in memory of her.  Top left--Daphne

Caleb got a new puppy for his birthday and, not wanting to be outdone...decided to do a rock in honor of her!  Middie.

My nephew, Landon really must have massaged his temples well.  His artistic side was showing out!  Look at that tabasco bottle--wow!

However, his spelling side got left out.  Notice the rock for sqash! hehehe!

Some close-ups of my favorites:

These two we have planted in our hearts and lives through the love of Jesus Christ.  So, we are growing them in our "gardens". 

How about you?

You CAN do this at home.  If you do decide to do this project or something similar, please link back here or share some pics in the comments. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Dawn

I linked up here: Weekend Whatever Link Up
and here:  Scoop Link Party

Easy DIY Laundry Detergent and Bleach!

 

Wash Day Prayer from Mamarocks.com 

There are so many ways to make your own laundry detergent!  Wow!  Finding the one that works best for your family might just be a challenge for you--like it was for me.  

We have LOTS of laundry and I don't just mean a LOT--I mean really more like TONS!  Well, maybe I exaggerate, but between my husband's construction job (wintertime is the worst because he layers and layers), our Christmas tree farm, my 2 yr. old and 5 yr. old boys and our inside puppy and a new sandbox on the front porch...I am constantly doing  one.  more.  load.  

Well, ok...my daughter and I make messes and have lots of clothes, too.  Can't blame it all on the guys!

My kids love baths and that means lots of towels (because I clean the floor with them afterward, hehehe!). Between those towels and the kitchen dish cloth and towel that are constantly being used to clean the floor--oops! Yes, I caught that--into the hamper now...phew the laundry seems endless!  

We are looking into more ways to be chemical-free in this house.  Therefore, we are trying all kinds of DIY, make-your-own products.  It's been fun and time-consuming...but, we love it when we find something that works!   

After looking at so many recipes and wanting a liquid recipe that did not involve grating soap (lazy, I know....sigh) and that did not clump up horribly and make it impossible to use the container I have, finally, I came up with a recipe of my own.  

Here it is:

1 Gallon hot water

1/3 c. salt

1/4 c. washing soda

2/3 c. Liquid Castile Soap

1/3 c. Borax

20 drops Wild Orange Essential Oil

I heated the water on the stove, until just getting hot.  You'll need to figure out how hot you want it to be. :0)  I didn't want it to be boiling, but just hot enough to dissolve all the powders and keep anything from clumping.  

I added the salt, stirred.  

Added the rest of the ingredients one at a time and stirred.  

Then, let it cool.  

Once not too hot to the touch, I added the essential oil and poured into my container.  

I like my laundry detergent to have a healthy, hearty citrus smell....so, you might want to start with 10 drops of any EO you like to see if that's enough for you.

Use 1/4 - 1/2 cup for each load

I just print my label in a Microsoft Word Document and then tape it to the container with clear packing tape--to make it waterproof.  I try to keep the recipe of everything I make on the container that holds it.  Otherwise, when it's time to make more, I either can't find the recipe or it takes too long to find it and I get sidetracked doing 3 or 4 other things before I remember that I was going to make it. :0) (Anyone relate to that??)

Homemade Bleach

I found this recipe for Homemade Bleach and was so excited to give it a try.  Who knew you could also make homemade bleach?  I'd never read the ingredients on my bleach bottle.  Have you?

My bottle says (what I can read of it, anyway....the print is tinier than tiny, we're talking microscopic here!) sodium hydrochloride 6%, other ingredients 94%.  So, ummm...what are the other ingredients?  Why don't they have to put that on there?  ugh!  I only know that it's some powerful stuff!  Which probably means it is not good for us.  

I mixed up this recipe for one gallon.

2 cups hydrogen peroxide (3% solution)
2 tsp. citric acid
13 cups water
20 drops lemon essential oil

Use 1/2 - 1 cup per load of laundry.

In the original recipe she offers lemon juice as a substitute for citric acid.  I have the lemon juice, but decided I would rather this last longer and felt like the lemon juice might go bad. (?)  That's why I used citric acid.

I love this!  It's working wonders on our clothes and they smell so much better than when I used regular bleach!

Here is the shelf just over my washing machine.

I use plain vinegar in the rinse cycle (sometimes I add a few drops of EO).  I use dryer balls and aluminum foil in my dryer, too.  No more toxin-filled dryer sheets--yay! 

I love knowing my laundry is no longer full of TOXINS and is fresh smelling and CLEAN!

Have you gone toxin-free with your laundry, yet?  If so, comment and tell me what you do.  If not, what's keeping you from it?  Please share some of your recipes here, too.  

Thanks for stopping by!
Dawn

I linked up here:

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and here:  Natural Living Link-Up

DIY Fading Color Scarf

Hannah and I found a post on A Blossoming Life back in March that we pinned to Pinterest to do later.  We finally decided to make some of these scarves today.  

We purchased:

Plain white bandanas at Hobby Lobby for .99 each.

Liquid Rit Dye at WalMart for $3.97 each color (pink & purple)

We washed and dried the bandanas.  (oops! skip the drying step as the bandanas need to be wet!)

Finding a recipe to make the dye was a little difficult as it's really not on the bottle.  So, I went to the Rit website and looked around and finally just decided to wing it.  Here is the recipe I came up with:

2 T. Salt

Bowl with hot water (no measurements, really)

1/3 bottle of the dye 

We just swished the salt around until it fully dissolved.  Then poured in the dye and stirred it around with a stainless steel spoon.  Make sure your bowls and spoons are stainless or glass as the dye will definitely stain any plastic.  The bottle recommends gloves, but we just made sure not to put our hands in the dye.

1.  Place 1/3 of the scarf into the dye for about 10 minutes.  We used the spoon to poke it down and be sure it was all under the water.  (We actually did 2 scarves at a time.)

 

  2.  Add the next 1/3 of the scarf into the dye for two more minutes.

3.  Add 1/2 of the last bit of scarf into the dye for about 1 second.  Remove all of the scarf into the sink.  Hold by the white part that has no dye and allow to rinse until all the colored water runs clear.

Wash by hand with detergent and then dry in the dryer.  

Ooh, la la!  Something fun to play with!  Find the right look for you!

In the hair  

Around the neck

  Hannah likes it like this to hold her hair back

No warnings!  You CAN try this at home!

Please leave a comment and thanks so much for stopping by!
Dawn

PS:  If we do this again, we'd probably add more dye to the pink to make it a little darker

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