Wow... craziness

Life has been crazy. Well, I had my sewing room about 75% set the way I wanted it, starting to put things in their place. In the middle of May our dishwasher decided to malfunction and leaked water under the floor in the kitchen and down into my sewing room. GASP! Luckily it wasn't too much damage to my room and insurance is paying for the fixes. But, in order for the room to be fixed, everything has to be moved out. UGH! So, for the last month, my whole room has been moved to the downstairs family room. The flooring we've ordered is on back order so those two rooms are still out of commission.

We have laminate floor in the kitchen and dining room, as well as the stairwell landing and downstairs hallway. Insurance is paying for the kitchen and dining room to be replaced, so we've decided to get all the laminate replaced. I'm so excited! We choose something called palmwood (http://www.greenchoiceflooring.com/Products/StrandWovenPalmwood.aspx). It's made up of old palm trees that are no longer baring coconuts. Instead of burning the trees to get rid of them, they are shredding them and making a composite type flooring. Trying our part to "green" up our house.

Speaking of going "green", I've been really focused on changing some of our cleaning products and even personal hygiene products to be more "green"/natural/organic. I've attempted in making my own laundry detergent with much success! I can't believe how easy it is and cheap too! There are many different recipes out there you can Google.

The recipe I use is:
* 1 bar of Fels Naptha laundry soap grated (either use food processor or cheese grater)
* 1 cup Borax
* 1 cup washing soda (e.g., Arm & Hammer washing soda - baking soda works okay but not as effective)

Mix all ingredients together in food processor. Put into a container and you're all set! Use 1 tablespoon per load. I also use 1/2 cup vinegar in my fabric softener dispenser instead of liquid fabric softener (or using the sheets in the dryer). You do not smell the vinegar on the clothes once they are dried.

ETA: I recently came across information that Fels Naptha has ingredients from petroleum products. I will be researching other, more natural soaps to use.

One of my problems with going "green" is that many of the personal cleaning products out there contain coconut oils. As many of you know from reading my previous blog postings, my daughter has peanut and tree nut allergies. At this time, coconut is not considered part of the tree nut family according to FAAN; however, my daughter does have an allergic reaction to this. Fortunately for us, it's not anaphylactic, "only" mild hives and itching. I did find a soap for my daughter from a brand called Kiss My Face that is olive oil and aloe that seems to be treating her skin well.

Last but not least, I lost my job. Yup, that sucked. However, I'm now happier than I have been in the last year. No more tension headaches. Yeah! Now I'm on to bigger and better things. We're in a good place financially so staying home is not quite out of the picture, but I am still looking for full or part time work. In the meantime, this leaves me time to create! So, I'm laying out all my options and see what I can come up with as far as crafty things. I might even open an Etsy store. That might be a little ways down the road but keep your fingers crossed for me!