This Smells Good!

You probably think I'm baking something, but I'm not. What smells so good? Laundry soap!
I pinned a "recipe" for homemade laundry soap onto my Pinterest board awhile ago and have been eager to try it out. I've been on the search for Zote soap ever since and I'll save you some trouble and just tell you that I found it at Lowe's Walmart Target Big Lots, at the huge cost of 90¢ a bar (so of course I bought 8 bars)! I found the "recipe" here.

The list of participants

This pesky guy was hard to find! 

I had to slice it in half to put it in my food processor, but it cut like butter. 

Into the food processor it goes, using the fine shred blade. 

I put it into an old (and I mean OLD, this was from July of '73 when my dad filled it with wheat!) plastic bucket. 

Here it is all stirred up. 

I was told to put it back in the Purex container, and yes, it looks cute in there, but the Zote soap doesn't come out of the hole easily. Spare yourself the trouble and put it back in the Oxi Clean bucket! 

I found all the ingredients for this at Walmart, except for the Zote soap. I know, Walmart is your least favorite place to shop, but sometimes it just gets the job done. I layered the ingredients a little bit to make mixing it easier. I also put the lid on the bucket and rolled it around, but eventually I just stuck my hand in there to really mix it up. After all, it's only soap. If you use your food processor to grate the soap, make sure you wash it really well afterwards! It is supposed to last for-ev-er. I washed one load of whites last night. There was no static cling and they were clean and smelled nice (I thought they might smell a little stronger, but they didn't). But if I can wash clothes for mere pennies, count me in.

Now You Can Eat Twice As Much!

I've posted my caramel popcorn recipe on here before, but I now have a new and improved recipe that uses half the butter so you can eat twice as much!

"Diet" Caramel Popcorn
1 cup popcorn kernels, popped
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 T vanilla extract
Pre-heat oven to 275°F. Pop the popcorn and remove any un-popped kernels. Spray a large pan (I use my turkey roasting pan) with non-stick spray. Place popcorn in sprayed pan. Set aside. In a large saucepan, melt the butter and then add the brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat while stirring constantly. Once mixture boils, stop stirring and boil for four minutes. Remove syrup from heat and stir in the baking soda and vanilla. Pour syrup over popcorn and stir until well coated. Place coated popcorn in oven and bake for 30 minutes, stirring every ten minutes.
Remove from oven and dump the popcorn onto parchment or wax paper. Spread the popcorn out so it isn't all clumped together. Let popcorn cool and eat away!  I promise you won't miss the extra stick of butter or the extra calories!

Halloween Cards

I learned how to make a cascading card for card group this month. While watching General Conference this weekend, I took my new-found skill and made some Halloween cards for my grandchildren. I only made four (one per family), so I'll send one to the four corners of the United States and call it good.

Here you can see a little better how it expands. 

Here's the side view...so you can see the sides! Crazy how that works, huh? 

Family Crafting

I saw a project online and knew I wanted to make it! If you haven't tapped in to Burton Avenue's blog yet, you've been missing out!
I looked at Lowe's for suitable wood. Nothing. After girl's lunch out on Tuesday, Cheryl and I swung by The Wood Connection and bingo! Found my wood. The problem was the individual sticks were too long (but that meant I only had to buy half as many!). I enlisted a helper!

Measuring 

Cutting

Fixing the point (I liked it more pointy than how it came)

And while you're at it...I have all these blocks that need to be cut! 

Burton Ave used the stencil approach to make their street signs. 

So I tried it their way. Here's the black paint smeared over the stencil. 

Fail. It leaked under the tape. 

So, since I originally cut out the words using red vinyl, I had to go back to square one and re-cut in black vinyl so I could just slap the vinyl on the wood rather than painting in the negative space.

The original directions nailed their boards into place. I wanted to be able to remove my signs from the post that was holding them so I could store it more easily. I decided magnets was the way to go. I glued (E6000) the magnets to the sign and to the post.  When the glue was set, I sprayed it with a coat of sealer. When I picked it all up, I realized magnets might not have been the best idea after all. One bump and all the boards came crashing down. I might have to remove the magnets and apply velcro instead (velcro was my original idea anyway). We shall see how well it holds up. 

OBB's Kickoff

Last month I was able to sneak away from my missionary assignment long enough to go to Our Best Bites kickoff extraordinaire. They had samples of lots of the recipes in their new book.

Here are the busy bees in the kitchen keeping the samples stocked while Kate and Sara sign books. 

It took about 20 minutes of waiting in line for my turn. 

Do you guys know Shelley Smith from The House of Smiths? 

She was so sweet to chat with me while I waited in line. She wasn't in line herself, she was just keeping me company while I waited. She's very effervescent! 

At last it was my turn. Kate wrote a sweet note in my book. 

And here is Kate's little guy, Will. I think he was underwhelmed by the whole ordeal. 

This is who I had with me the last time I went to Gygi's. I wish they were with me this time too!

A Busy Weekend

I got to see my granddaughter, Nora, this weekend. She came to Utah with her mom (and others) for her great grandpa's funeral. Here she is with all the desserts we cranked out so they wouldn't have to resort to cookies from Costco.

Her momento from her great grandpa was this hat. I think she is absolutely adorable in it!

It was a long weekend of lots of driving for Nora and her extended Anderson family, but it sure was fun for me to see them.