Showing posts with label simply living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label simply living. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Best thing about winter? Leggings!


What the first thing I grab on those first chilly days?


No fabric is safe from the legging pattern!

I have them in velvet, lace, rayon, cotton, you name it and it has been made into leggings.

I refuse to wear pantyhose. Ever. Never again. Do they even still make those?

Snugly socks, a pair of boots, leggings and I'm done for the winter!   

New Lace Fabric---Ruffled Romantic Lace Leggings or Tights - Cream - READY TO SHIP
Romantic lace leggings or tights are made from 4 way stretch lace with a soft ruffle at the bottom.
Under a wedding dress, tunic, as pj's or a sexy undergarment you choose how you want to wear these.






Poor Sacha has been waiting on her pair for...a year???...something like that!

I'm sorry darlin' you'll get a pair for Christmas! Promise!

I won't sell the ones I make you this time around. LOL







Thank you to my gorgeous model Whitney and photographer Greg!

Shared!!!

http://www.commonground-do.com/

http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/


Friday, September 21, 2012

It works! Homemade Laundry Powder!

 
And what do you think Sacha and I do when we're not cleaning, listing, flea marketing, 
listing more, and just plain working?

We play of course!

 I found a recipe for homemade laundry soap and being as that we have to wash everything that comes through our doors, anything to save some money I'm going to give a try!

Of course I was skeptical. I've been using Tide since my Mom used it on my clothes and I'm 53.
So getting me to use something else was going to be impressive!

And as soon as I remember WHERE I found this on the internet, I'll link back to it.
Not that I stayed with the original recipe or anything..but still...


HOMEMADE LAUNDRY POWDER




I tried the grating method on my first batch. It works like a charm in the washing machine.
I hand wash and soak a lot of linens,
so my next batch I put in the food processor and ground it small.
Love it!

Found it!  Being Creative 
This was the original recipe:

1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (1.81 kg) found in the cooking isle

1  box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle

3 bars of Fels-Naptha soap, found in the detergent isle (if you use Zote bars use 2 bars instead, Zote can be found at Home Depot)

2 small containers of Oxy Clean or store brand Oxy Clean (try to get about 3.5 lbs total (1.58 kg)) found in the detergent isle.
(this is optional, I added it into mine because I have pretty messy kids and the cleaner the better)

You should be able to find all of these items at your grocery store.

**Use 1-2 Tablespoons per load. I know that does not seem like enough but this recipe does not have fillers like the store bought detergent so you only need 1-2 Tablespoons.**



My recipe:



And yay! I found a new use for my pink depression glass cookie jar!

I left out the oxy clean and used the baking soda, laundry powder, and Borax.

I used the 3 bars of Fels-naptha. 1.00 each at walmart!

Put a bar of Dr. Brommers Lavender Castile soap in for the smell good factor.

And next time I'll try some Kirks Castile soap.  .99 a bar off the internet.

Mixed it all up in a 5 gallon bucket and I've used most of my first batch and have never looked back! So long Tide!!!


Monday, September 17, 2012

French Teapots and Spiders


As usual, during coffee I was having my morning (her evening) conversation with Sacha...


She was showing me what she was listing today. Love these French prints! Why does she have all the good stuff! Yes, I'm whining here!


Look at this cute, cute enamel teapot!!


Anyway...

I was gracefully (slouching) reclining at my desk when this HUMONGOUS
wood spider came crawling across the top of my desk towards me.

I'll tangle with almost anything, I have bears and coyotes in my yard every night...

but spiders, and especially one as big as one of my cats???

(Brenda: known to exaggerate a teeny bit)

Oh man, I'm outta there!

And just in case you thought Sacha was the sweet one...




You can see how sympathetic she was!




        • Have you see all the comments on our blog???

        • I just had a spider as big as a tarantula come crawling across my desk!!!

      • Sacha Kay
        3 hours ago
        Sacha Kay
        • YIKES! Don't you have dogs and cats to capture creatures like that?

      • Brenda Cantrell
        3 hours ago
        Brenda Cantrell
        • Heck they would have been afraid! LAMO
        • SCARED ME!!

      • Sacha Kay
        3 hours ago
        Sacha Kay
        • Of course it scared you. What did you do with it?
      • Brenda Cantrell
        3 hours ago
        Brenda Cantrell
        • I chased it, it got away. I've moved to the couch!! Freaking out! LOL
        • Gotta go back in for my coffee...OMG...Do you think it's laying in wait???
      • Sacha Kay
        3 hours ago
        Sacha Kay
        • Ehm? Chase it?!?!?! LOL! You DID know where it was. Now it can get back to surprising you. LMAO!!! This is hilarious.

            • Try catching it with a glass / jar and piece of paper and release it outside. Or if you don't mind killing spiders: vacuum cleaner.

          • Brenda Cantrell
            3 hours ago
            Brenda Cantrell
            • Says you! LOL I've got to go back over there eventually!
            • I did! I had a can and paper! It LEAPED behind the desk!

          • Sacha Kay
            3 hours ago
            Sacha Kay
            • I'm not afraid of spiders. I always catch and release them. Except for the ones that come with 1,000s. Those I vacuum.

          • Brenda Cantrell
            3 hours ago
            Brenda Cantrell
            • And me screaming like a girl.

          • Sacha Kay
            3 hours ago
            Sacha Kay
            • LOL!!! Too bad you didn't have your webcam on.



              grin
          • Brenda Cantrell
            3 hours ago
            Brenda Cantrell
            • I was just saying...thank god she couldn't see that!!!
            • I'm not afraid of ANYTHING BUT SPIDERS!!! Give me the freaking heebie jeebies.

                • Why? You're too big for them to eat you.

                  smile

              • Brenda Cantrell
                3 hours ago
                Brenda Cantrell
                • The dogs and cars are asleep on the couch while I'm being eaten by a gigantic spider!

              • Sacha Kay
                3 hours ago
                Sacha Kay
                • I think I would have died if I had seen you with that spider. OMG! I'm already almost dying by thinking of it. I'm almost wetting my pants here.


                  grin
              • Brenda Cantrell
                3 hours ago
                Brenda Cantrell
                • And there's no proof of that.
                • that they can't eat me...


        • Who can I call if you're not here tomorrow at this time of day? In order to check if you haven't gotten eaten by a spider. LOL!!!!

      • Brenda Cantrell
        3 hours ago
        Brenda Cantrell
        • LOL Just send the ambulance for what's left of my spider eaten body.
        • It's just a wood spider. Not dangerous. they always try to come inside when fall gets here. They are just HUGE.
      • Sacha Kay
        3 hours ago
        Sacha Kay
        • Ohw. Okay. I will. Keep your webcam on when you go to sleep. Maybe it just crawls inside your mouth and you won't ever know that it's living in your stomach if you don't film it. LMAO!!!

      • Brenda Cantrell
        3 hours ago
        Brenda Cantrell
        • OMG NOW THAT'S JUST WRONG

Saturday, August 18, 2012

In The Beginning...

This year is my anniversary of a lot of things. Twenty years with my husband, fourty years on planet earth and ten years in France. That makes me be half a life with my man and a quarter of it living in La Douce France.
Does that make me half my husband and 25% French? I don't know. I just know that I am more "me" now than I was twenty years ago.

Moving to France was a step of Epic Proportions. Not only was there the "quitting a solid, very well earning job", a huge language barrier, to say the least, and the construction work on a 500 year old house that had been abandoned for almost fourty years.

To paint the pixels: the house had walls (very solid, 60 centimeter thick ones) and a roof. That was it. And when I say that was it, I mean that in the broadest possible meaning of the sentence.

No bedroom. No kitchen. No bathroom.
Ha! Eat this, Thoreau!

The one thing that I did have, was my husband. A whole lot of husband. As in "24-7-365" husband. And no possible way to avoid each other when doing construction work.

Oh well. We survived. As did the house. All of us came out quite a bit stronger.

While writing this, I'm soaking in my bathtub. One of the earthly pleasures I found that I could not possibly live without. Like Thoreau asked himself "what do I really need and what am I willing to pay for it?", I did too. And somehow, just somehow, enjoying a nice hot bath with fresh herbs and sea salt, doesn't feel like paying. At all.

Sacha, simply living.

sacha kay simply living french france country campagne

(this blog is cross-posted from SachaKay.com)