Party decorations

The birthday party went really well. We had a packed house, but it was a lot of fun. And almost everyone in Steve's family was together for the first time in a long long time.

Naomi made a great looking (and great tasting) cake. I made cupcakes, and Naomi came early to decorate them.


I didn't want to buy a lot of decorations for Rebecca's party. I bought balloons, and I spent $1 on the cupcake banner hanging over the high chair. I made everything else with supplies I had at home.

I used scrapbook papers and supplies to make the birthday banner.

The curly ribbon is a couple of gift bows from Rebecca's baby gifts. The paper rosettes were made from a story book I bought at a yard sale for .25 cents. I didn't like it and was just going to get rid of it. I had found instructions somewhere on the internet for paper rosettes, which I can't find now. They were pretty easy though. I tore out the pages, and folded them like a fan. I used the folded pages on most of mine and cut the ends to look a little more interesting.

I found a bunch of containers, cans, and jars I had around the house to use for chips, pretzels, forks, toothpicks, etc. I used a small mailbox decorated with green ribbon and a number "1" and put Rebecca's pictures in it for guests to take.

I bought this flag at a yard sale for .50 cents, and plan on using it again.

Another converted story book. This was really really easy. I just tore out the pages, which were perfect squares. Cut it in diagonals (four triangle pieces), folded one corner and stapled it, and used my hot glue gun to attach buttons and wooden dowels. I put them in a jar with some buttons and put it on the table as a centerpiece.

Now I start planning for next year. . .

WFMW: Target

I've posted before about Kroger giving you .03 cents for each reusable bag you use. Yesterday I found out Target is doing the same thing, but its .05 cents for each bag. I've gotten a couple of free bags from Kroger when they've done their design a bag promotion. And most of them are made with recycled plastic or something. Another reason to love Target! :)

WFMW: laundry soap

This week's Works for Me Wednesday tip is once again about laundry. I recently read on A Full Cup about making laundry detergent for really cheap. So after finally finding Zote soap, I tried it this weekend. The link has a couple of different recipes, including a liquid version. I decided on trying the powder one. Here's the recipe I used:

2 parts Zote or Fels Naptha soap (This is laundry soap, not regular soap)
1 part Borax
1 part washing soda (This is not the same as baking soda.)

The thread on A Full Cup has more info on different stores that carry these ingredients. I got Borax and washing soda at Kroger, and Zote at Save a Lot. Kroger also has Fels Neptha if you use that recipe.

Grate the bar of soap. I got an old grater at an antique flea market to use just for my soap. We grated mine in bigger pieces, but the next time I do this I'll grate it finer. It didn't seem to affect the soap dissolving, but I think it will just be better if it's finer. Then just combine the three ingredients. I put mine in an empty Tidy Cats kitty litter bucket. By now if you're like my mom and sister, you're thinking I'm crazy. But it was really easy to do, and I'm not just saying that because my sister grated my whole bar of soap for me. :) The ingredients cost me about $7. At first I thought one recipe would last me about 100 loads, but according to someone on A Full Cup will last me for over 300 loads! Even with coupons and sales I could never find detergent that cheap. You just need to use 2 tbs for each load, so it will last a long time. The Zote soap I got is pink and has a flowery scent, but my laundry had no smell at all after I washed it. If you want to, you can add a few drops of essential oils to the washing machine to give your laundry a little scent. There won't be any suds with this detergent, but trust me it really cleans! It got out some old stains I was sure would never come out.

There's a cost break down at Simple Dollar on store bought detergent vs. homemade. This is based on the liquid detergent, but I think the powdered version is about the same and even cheaper is you can find coupons. Sometimes Arm & Hammer has coupons in the paper for any laundry product or something.

Entertainment center

We got this entertainment center from a freecycler over the weekend. We've had our tv on that tiny table to the left of the entertainment center. We don't have a big tv, but we have the dvd player, dish network box, and lots of dvds. Saturday I was finally able to unpack our dvds for the first time in a few years! The entertainment center isn't the nicest one and it has some scratches, but it will do until we find one we really like. It holds all of our stuff, and it was totally free!