Turning 29... again.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of my 29th birthday.  I have decided to stay 29 for a few more years, ha!

Today we are closing on our new house  :D

Such a lovely present for my (second) 29th birthday...

One Year Anniversary

Last week to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary, we took a little trip to the Outer Banks along the beautiful NC coast.  Last year we spent our honeymoon on Hilton Head Island so I guess it's becoming somewhat of a tradition to head to the beach!  Strangely enough, the day of our anniversary (September 10th) is actually the peak of hurricane season (remember, giant weather nerd here)  but fortunately we have been lucky enough to have great weather for both trips.  As well, there was much to celebrate with having survived the first year of marriage and all... ha  ;)

Here are a few photos from our trip:

My favorite picture  ❤

At the end of photo shoots we almost always end with silly pictures!

Sunset from the pier

Jockeys Ridge Sand Dunes

Erik tried (unsuccessfully) to boogie board down the dunes!

I scored this sweet little dress for only $10 at the beach shop next to our hotel.  Apparently everything goes on super clearance at the beach after Labor Day, so needless to say we did a LOT of shopping!

Baywatch style... haha.  Trying out his new boogie board and bathing suit in the cold ocean!

Mimosas on the balcony on the morning of our anniversary

Several weeks before our trip, I had this "great idea" for a photo shoot on the actual day of our anniversary that involved dressing up in our wedding attire and taking a few photos on the beach.  Little did I know the evenings would be much cooler than the days, accompanied by gale force winds.  Ok so I don't exactly know what "gale force winds" even means, but let's just say had it been any worse it would have lifted up my dress and carried me away Mary Poppins style...  Despite the cool weather and blustery conditions, we still managed to have a successful shoot.  Here are a few of my favorites:

The tag was suppose to "dangle" more from our fingers but with the wind and all this was the best we could do!

Yes, in the chilly air and gale force winds (ha) we decided to do the photo I had been looking forward to most of all...  Taking off our clothes and running towards the beach in nothing but our undies!  :D

tiles borrowed from one of our favorite board games...

Along with taking a bunch of photos, we also went to see a band called Perpetual Groove, rode our bikes around Kill Devil Hills, did a lot of shopping, a LOT of eating, lat night hot tubbing, visited the Wright Brothers Memorial, went to the Sand Dunes, and even did a little dancing after our fancy anniversary dinner.  So much fun, we have already discussed which beach we will be heading to next year...

We survived year one, here is to many more to follow...

DIY Natural Laundry Soap

For a while now I have been buying primarily Purex Natural Elements laundry detergent.  The label says "natural" and "plant derived" and it is a super deal in comparison to other natural brands such as Method or Seventh Generation.  After learning that Purex actually contains 30% petroleum based ingredients and is not really as natural as they would like you to believe, I decided it was time for a change.  I realized that I could make my own at home, with only three ingredients, for a fraction of the price that the commercial detergents cost.  Here is how I did it, and how you can do it too:

You will need:  

3 cups borax 

3 cups washing soda

1 8 oz. bar of plant-based (castile) soap

You will also need:  large bowl, large spoon, grater, and elbow grease (not pictured.)

First, grate the entire bar of soap.  This is a bit of work.  Use your elbow grease for that.  Also, use the finest side of your grater - you want the smallest pieces possible.  This is what it looks like when grated:

Next, mix together: grated soap, borax, and washing soda

Even after what I felt like should have been enough mixing to break up the larger soap shavings, it still didn't look blended enough for me....  Probably didn't help that I used green soap  ;)

So I decided to run the whole darn batch through my food processor.  I don't think it is necessary if your soap shavings are smaller than mine...  If you choose to use a processor you will probably need to do it in batches.  I did mine in 6 or so.  But I have pretty much the smallest food processor ever made.

That's it!  Use 1-2 tbsp per load depending on the size or how dirty your clothes are.  Store in a mason jar or plastic tub with a tbsp sized scoop nearby for measuring.

This detergent does not "suds up" like regular detergent does, but I used it today and it worked as well as any other detergent I have used.  For the bar soap I used Kiss My Face "Olive & Lavender."  You can also buy fragrance-free castile soap, Dr.Bronners would be another great brand to use.  I didn't notice any remaining lavender smell on my clothes after washing & drying them, but that's okay with me.  That strong "summer breeze" smell on your freshly folded towels does not indicate clean - they are artificial perfumes added to detergents to make you think your clothes are clean.  But really, clean clothes shouldn't have any smell at all...  If you want to read more on that, go here.

And of course this just wouldn't be my blog if I didn't run a little cost analysis for you...

Average cost of Purex Natural Elements per load = $0.18
Average cost of Charlies Soap (powder) per load = $0.20

Average cost of Method detergent per load = $0.29

I paid around $5.00 for the ingredients I used which was 1/2 box washing soda and 1/3 box borax, and one 8 oz. bar of castile soap (of course you can't really buy a 1/3 box of borax, this is purely for cost comparison...)  The batch made about 8 cups total.  Assuming you use 1 1/2 tbsp per load on average, that works out to 85 loads per batch. 

Total cost per medium sized load = $0.06

(a small load = $0.04 and a large load = $0.08)

true story.  happy laundry day to you  :)