Homemade Produce Wash

I've been using this all-natural produce wash for a little while now. I made up a new batch of it today, so I took some pictures and thought I would share. It's super easy and WAY CHEAPER than the stuff that you buy at your grocery store.

Homemade Produce Wash:

1 spray bottle + one recycled jar

1 cup water

1 cup vinegar

1 tablespoon baking soda

20 drops grapefruit seed extract - (I get mine at Whole Foods)

Put the water and vinegar in a deep pitcher or big bowl. This is why...........

When you add the baking soda, cool science happens! lol The baking soda and the vinegar react and foam up like crazy. I was using an 8-cup measuring cup and it came very close to foaming over the top.

After the foam goes away, stir well. It will probably foam up again, but not as badly as the first time. Fill up your spray bottle and if you have any left over, pour it into your recycled glass jar. Be sure to label your jar, so you know what's inside!

To use, spray your produce and let it sit on your counter or in a bowl for 5 to 10 minutes. Rinse well and eat!

For small produce, like grapes and blueberries, I place the fruit in a bowl, spray the fruit real well and mix them up a bit with my fingers, spraying on more wash here and there. Then I let them sit and rinse.

I found this recipe at Recipezaar and I think it works great!

Game Face - layout

First of all, I have to say this.........

GO BIG RED!!!!!!!

Okay, now that I have that out of my system....lol I also have to say that the photo of my kids on the second page (acting like the statues) is by far one of my most favorite photos of my kids ever! lol I have a copy of this on my fridge and it makes me laugh every time I look at it. It's great for those times when I'm grumpy. lol This layout covers a couple of challenges. It was my submission at Practical Scrappers for their Bling Challenge that was last week (yep, I'm late on sharing mine here on my blog!) and it's also for a sketch challenge at a great Yahoo! Group called ScrapFromYourStash. The sketch is by Shawn at Nuts About Sketches. She has tons and tons of awesome sketches, so be sure to visit her blog to see them!!!!

Things are still crazy here.....I'm averaging one page a week......which I guess is better than zero! I'm trying to pull out all of my winter clothes right now, pack them up and move in my summer clothes. I need to do that for little GG, too, so I have quite a bit of clothes to go through!

I hope to share more with you soon!

Practical Scrappers Card Sketch

The current card sketch at Practical Scrappers is just awesome! I really enjoyed making this Thank You card.....(I need to mail it! I keep forgetting!). Be sure to go here to see the sketch and all of the other amazing cards that have been made following this sketch.

For my card, I chose to use a small doily for the main circle. I'm not sure if you noticed, but the scalloped-rectangle piece of paper is a scrap left over from the paper that I used on the layout I shared a few days ago. The title is stamped.....I'm embarrassed to say that I have had that Stampin'Up! stamp set for probably 8 years and I just now cut that stamp out to use on this card. For the flower, I punched out 4 different sized flowers and curled up the edges with a small, wooden skewer. Then I added fine glitter to the edges with some liquid glue and added a small rhinestone in the center. I am really having fun making these 3-dimensional flowers!

I hope you all have a wonderful, crafty day!

Markers Challenge @ Practical Scrappers

Good morning! This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use your markers! I have had the full set of Stampin' Up! makers for many, many years and I must say I can't believe they still work so wonderfully. I guess that's a bad sign that I really haven't been using them that often. ;-) So, I was really excited to see this weeks challenge. I have been trying to use them more and I think that I'm actually really enjoying all of these markers for the first time since I bought them ages ago!

I really wanted to challenge myself and think of something that I hadn't done before. So, I decided to color on some thick, cotton "ribbon". I'm not sure what this stuff is called, but it's not ribbon, it's more like yarn or flat cotton twine. Anyway, I decided to use blue and pulled out three shades of blue markers. I put some Mono Adhesive on both ends of the twine and stuck it to my work surface, so it wouldn't move around while I colored on it. Then, I just started making lines of different thicknesses for each color and followed the pattern all of the way across the ribbon. Easy as pie and it matches my layout colors perfectly!!!! :-) If you click on the picture, you can see a bigger version of it....I forgot to take a close-up of the colored twine!

Obviously, this layout is about our love of Whole Foods. lol We go there a little too often.... ;-) It can be pricey, but I find that their 360 house-brand is quite reasonable. Really, all that I buy there right now is organic produce, some beauty/bath items, Keifer and organic coffee. That's my one, big splurge. Organic coffee. lol My little one loves Whole Foods, too, especially their cookies! I know that people like to call it "Whole Paycheck" but I really do find that if you buy what's on sale, use coupons, and buy their house-brand, that it's not too bad. Plus, I'd rather pay the extra for things that I know are better for me and my family.....but that's an entire different topic! ;-)

I hope you all join in on this challenge at Practical Scrappers! Please visit us there, check out all of the amazing projects and add your own to Mr. Linky!!!!! It's a wonderful place with wonderful people and a great place to get inspiration to use the supplies that you have!