I am slacking! Again!

I said I wouldn't let it happen again, but here I go--it has been six days since my last blog post! Oops!

My mom (Nana!) is coming to visit in two days, and we can hardly wait! Asta keeps diving on the floor, throwing her arm up in the air with two fingers sticking up and shouting "TWO SLEEPS! TWO SLEEPS UNTIL NANA IS HERE!" We have lots of fun things planned for when she arrives! (Including the kids' first dental cleanings and overdue well child exams from 18 months ago!) Also plan to do some shopping at the outlet mall, some antiquing around town, and hopefully other fun things too like getting frozen yogurt, going to the beach, movie night on the air station. Whatever everyone is up for! Will be a very fun nine days!!

We Did It! Wednesday!

It has been waaaay too hot out to complete any of our outdoor projects in the garage, so it has been a week full of creating in the sewing room!

First, I sewed pillows for our kids. If you cut a standard sized pillow in half, it creates two perfectly sized pillows for toddlers! I just cut it in half, used a basting stitch to close off the open ends, then started sewing the pillowcases. When I finished the pillowcases, I tried button-holing for the first time with great success!

Anders got one with a transportation theme-it closes with green and blue buttons. Asta picked out retro apples and pears fabric for hers-and since we didn't have enough of that, I used organic cotton velour in a pretty shade of sage green for the back. Hers shuts with shimmery pink buttons, perfect for that girlie girl. They absolutely love their pillows, as they are easy for them to carry around, and are specially sized for them! I look forward to sewing them cases in holiday themes too--they would love pumpkin or Santa themed ones!

I also made a car seat blanket for Anders-baby blue minky dot fabric with a satin Mickey cog work trim. I also tried my hand at doing a reverse appliqué, which turned out decent enough for a first try! I appliquéd a retro pear to a pair of infant chambray capris that I sewed a month ago. Other than that, I've just been busy mending ballerina dresses, leotards, and stuffed animals!

** I know, I know, "This post is useless without pics!" I will get some taken tomorrow!! **

Fabulous Family Friday!

Today we have been thrifting! Thankfully, Asta is being a trooper. She went through her toy box today and said "Lets make a pile of what we want to keep...and what we want to sell!" Then she would say, "Mommy, say-'Asta, when is the last time you played with that?' I guess we should put it in the sell pile...." She had lots of fun. We are thrifting ten things from each room to start with--making it 100 items total to thrift! (pretty good considering I've already loaded up my vehicle four times with stuff to get rid of!) One step closer in getting our home as clutter-free and organized as possible before we move. Did I mention we are moving? : ) It's a pretty for sure thing, and could be happening as early as January! Everyone cross your fingers for us that we end up back home, or near-to-home! We miss the snow, the cold, the family, the friends, everything about the midwest! We will definitely be making use of our remaining time near the beach though!

You Can Manage- Homemade Laundry Detergent!

I am not a fan of most store-bought laundry detergents. They are full of all kinds of garbage chemicals and fillers that you waste your money on! This is the recipe and process for the laundry detergent we use. You may need to adjust the ingredients, as everyone has different types of water- hard, soft, kinda hard, kind of soft, you know! This is what you need-

1 helper child approximately the age of four years

1 canine supervisor to critique and offer encouragement

Fels-Naptha laundry soap bars

20-Mule Team Borax

Washing Soda--not to be confused with baking soda!

There are recipes that use entire boxes, or you can try just a couple cups at a time. 

The basic formula is- 2 cups Fels-Naptha, 1 cup Borax and 1 cup washing soda.

Have helper begin grating.

Keep watching them grate, offer help when little hands get tired!

Provide shade to canine supervisor. It is a tough job, after all.

Now, you have options. You can grate into this cheddar cheese like consistency and then powder it in the food processor. You can cube it and put it in the food processor. OR, which we have done before, you can just grate it on the tiniest hole side on your grater.

Process!

Should look like couscous now! 

Mix together ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Pour into cute jar. Or empty leftover 32 oz yogurt container! 

Use 1 Tablespoon per load (yes, even a big one!) for everyday use. If you have been mucking in your yard, and your jeans are waist to toes in mud--use two!

Here is a picture of the Fels-Naptha so you can find it! All three ingredients in this recipe can be found at most grocery stores, large drug stores, or super stores. It can also be found on Amazon. It is .97/bar at Walmart. You can also use Zote-which is pink and has a slight citronella smell due to the citronella oil in it. Another note- opening the bar and leaving it to sit out overnight will let it dry out slightly, to aide in the powdering process. 

Falling Waters State Park in Chipley, Florida

Tasty Thursday!

Every Thursday that I don't have anything better to talk about, I mean, come on, how often is there something better to talk about than FOOD?! I will be having Tasty Thursday or Thirsty Thursday where I share my favorite food and drink recipes.

Today, I'm sharing the recipe of my favorite potato salad. So if you are looking for something new to bring to a neighborhood potluck, or a different dish to try with dinner, give this a shot!

Creamy Ancho New Potato Salad

Tune-in Tuesday! Rainy Day!

My children enjoying the day Pensacola got 13-20 inches of water over different parts of the city! 

Song plays twice, and there are some great shots of them sledding in the end!

\\

Show it Sunday! Upcycled T-Shirt to Tank Top

Check out this tutorial on how to turn an oversized tee into a tank top. This is a quick sew, it takes very little time to complete-under ten minutes, I'd say. It can be done with a shirt of your husband's to make yourself a cute tank (or oversized shirts from places such as tournaments, volunteer opportunities, camps, and charity runs). So grab those favorite tees of your husband's, you know...the ones with six holes and deodorant stains in each arm pit, grab your scissors, and get cutting! Trust me, he will be fine with losing his favorite shirt to see YOU sporting it! 

Here is a picture of my daughter, Asta, modeling her Wall-E tank! 

Here is the tutorial from Crafterhours for how to sew up this cute little top!

Crafterhours Tee to Tank Tutorial

Welcome!

Welcome to Dirt Stompin' Hippies! I have come to realize that besides deployments, I will never come to use my She Wore a Yellow Ribbon blog on a regular basis. I used to have a lot to say about the Marine Corps. And as many of you know, I STILL have a lot to say about the Marine Corps. But I've come to learn that I would rather vent to my mother over the phone and be done with it, than have it be in a location that I can read and re-read and boil over again and again. What I DO like talking about, as many of my friends and people on Facebook know...is green living! We love our eco-friendly practices, and although I can assure you we will never go "off the grid", we like to inch our way closer to whole living and buying sustainable products. We are learning to do more and more homemade, including laundry detergent--to which I will post a tutorial on how to make later! Along with things like how to upcycle used thrift store, garage sale, or hand me down clothing into unique (and in many cases better than new!) pieces of art for your kid to wear! Now, while we use a lot of eco-friendly practices, don't get me wrong...we enjoy our this-day-in-age conveniences too. We like watching television and surfing the web (and gasp! our two children do too!). We both have cellphones, though I recently dropped my Blackberry plan and got a basic phone instead! I am loving every minute of being less-reachable, by the way! I like the occasional Diet Coke-formeldahyde and all! And I've been known to chow down on Chips Ahoy! every now and then also! We do our best with what we know, have, and can afford. And I want to show you how easy it is, to do the things yourself too, if you are so inclined!

Yours truly,

the original Dirt Stompin' Hippie of our family,

Erica Lien