Some Changes Around Here

Hello! I have some wonderful news to share! My daughter has joined me and JujuBean Creations is now a mother and daughter team. She makes adorable pendants and magnets. Let me show you a few of my favorites. The round pendants are made with a gunmetal finish cabochon base with bail, containing an image sealed behind glass. In our shop she is offering your choice of chain, ball chain, or organza ribbon, with several colors to choose from. Her magnets feature images sealed behind glass with a small but strong magnet attached, these measure 1" as well.

 This beauty features my own original photography, with a gunmetal finish cabochon base and organza ribbon.

Bird Trio, gunmetal finish with ball chain.

Bird on Branch, gunmetal finish with black organza.

 Kokeshie Dolls 1" Magnet Set. I really need these on my fridge!!

Birds 1" Magnet Set in organza bag.

I am absolutely in love with all the cute pieces she is making. I'd like to have one of each! Thanks for stopping by!

Bow-tie Onesie Facebook Giveaway!!

Now through July 25, 2013 at midnight central time you can enter to win one of these adorable onesies through my facebook page!!

Go here to enter: ENTER NOW!!

DIY Liquid Hand Soap Tutorial

 This is my fourth time making my own handsoap and I’ve got it down now so I wanted to share! My first two batches were okay, but not anything I wanted to jump up and down about. I’ve done this so far with Ivory, which is very cheap but well, it’s just Ivory and I felt a little embarrassed quite frankly when guests would wash their hands at my house! I also tried this with a cute bar of olive oil glycerin soap I picked up at a farmers market for some reason even though I don’t use bar soap (it was pretty!). My next attempt was a gallon batch with 2 bars of Yardley, Oatmeal Almond soap. They sell it at my local Dollar Store for $1 per bar. It’s labeled as being paraben and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate free, and smells heavenly. It turned out awesome! This handsoap has a nice texture (snot-like is a common term used in diy handsoap tutorial comments!), and even a light lather. I think my hands feel softer since I’ve been using it! You can also use this same method for making body wash.

The recipes I found previously did not stress the fact that you need to blend your soap after it sets up, this is how you get the nice consistency. You may think it’s too thick but it’s not it just needs to be blended (so don‘t start dumping more water in there or heating it back up until you've blended it with your mixer for a few minutes!). It should look like a thick gloppy pot of goop (technical terms). That means it set up like it was supposed to.

 So lets get started!

DIY Yardley Handsoap Recipe-

2- 4.5oz bars Yardley Soap (purchased at The Dollar Store for $1 per bar)

4 TBSP Glycerin (purchased at Walmart in first-aid section, $3.26 for 6oz)

1 gallon distilled water (about $.88)

Other supplies you’ll need-

Cheese grater

Large bowl

Large spoon
Large pot (lid is optional)

Electric Mixer

Ladle or scoop
Funnel

Gallon jug (that your water came in)

Soap dispensers

Start by grating your cheese soap using a hand grater. I'm using English Lavender for this batch, but I am definitely in love with the Oatmeal Almond!

 Place your gallon of water in a large pot and start heating it up. You do not want to boil the water, just getting it nice and hot.

 When your water is hot, dump in the grated soap and stir until it is all dissolved.

Looks yummy.

 Once your soap is dissolved, turn off the heat and stir in your glycerin. You are done for now. This needs to set for about 10-12 hours for the soap to cool down and set back up. This is like a big pot of lava and takes forever to cool down. You can cover the pot if you'd like.

 When you come back to your pot after it has cooled down and set up, as I said above, it should be a pot of thick glop and you are cursing me under your breath as you look at it thinking there is no way. I did cheat and put my covered pot in the freezer because after 8 hours it was still a bit warm and hadn't firmed up much yet, and well I wanted to finish this batch today. But then I forgot about it for a couple hours so it firmed up a bit more than it normally would. This is pretty close to how it would be without chilling it though. Your soap mixture is going to do some separating during the cooling/firming process and that's why you have to blend it! This is a solid, with water trapped under it, hence the next step...

 Get your beaters out, starting on low speed for the first minute (until the thicker parts are broken up and it will take longer if you chill it like I did!) then up it to high for another 2-3 minutes or so. After this, you should have a nice, luxurious handsoap ready to bottle up.

See, it's fabulous now!! 

  I just pour some into any empty dispensers I have and put the rest into the gallon jug the water came in. You won’t be able to fit the entire pot into the jug because you’ve added soap and beat some air into it. All done. Relatively easy, and cheap, and you are stocked on handsoap for a while! Enjoy!

If you try my recipe and tutorial, please leave me a note and let me know what you think! Follow me on Pinterest and like me on Facebook to keep up with the latest. Thank you for stopping by, much love!
Visit me on Facebook 
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Hop on over to my Facebook fan page to snatch this guy up for just $20 including shipping!!

www.facebook.com/jujubeancreations

It's the big one on the right in the line-up below :)

Homemade Laundry Detergent

As a single parent I am always looking for ways to make my money go farther. A few months ago I started making my own laundry detergent and I definitely won't be turning back to store bought again. The best part is that you only need 2 TBSP for a regular load, and the cost breakdown is just pennies per load! I'm not a math person, so you'll have to look elsewhere if you want the actual cost breakdown :) The link below is the recipe that I've been using. The only issue I have is that the Fels Naptha bars smell very strong. They made my whole house smell of pine-sol type cleaner until I got them mixed up into the detergent. Grating these bars is not too bad if you have a fresh bar because the soap is soft. I ran small amounts at a time of the mixed up detergent through a food processor to get the soap chopped up finer. Works great and even though I hate the smell of the bar initially, it's much better after it's mixed up with the other ingredients and my cloths come out smelling very nice, fresh, and clean! I do think however that my whites are looking a little dingy. In my research that seems to be a common complaint with the Fels Naptha Laundry Soap. Happy with it overall though.

Click on the image below to check out the tutorial by Sew Much Ado.

Due to the smell of the Fels Naptha and kinda dingy whites, I did some research and decided that I wanted to make this with Zote Laundry Soap. So I found some pink Zote bars and made up a new batch. Zote bars are 14.1 oz, so I doubled everything in the recipe, and added a half cup of an 'oxygen' laundry booster, hoping the combo of the zote and the addition of the oxygen booster will give my whites a boost, and help with any stains I may have not pre-treated. My observations are that the bars of Zote do not smell just sitting in the wrapper in my laundry room, but is still irritating to me when I'm handling the soap. The bars are harder, so harder to grate though I was able to grate them up fine instead of coarse because of this and the soap is so crumbly there was no need to run in through the food processor after I had it mixed up with the other ingredients, it broke down enough that it wasn't a problem (and maybe my bar had been sitting on the shelf for a while and dried out, that may not be the case with every bar). Oddly enough the Zote smells stronger to me than the Fels Naptha mixed up in the detergent, go figure...

Grating up the Zote, my bar is really hard= hard work ;)

So I've been using the Zote mixture for a couple weeks or so now. My overall opinion of it is that my stuff is cleaner. For example, I had an oil stain on a pair of jeans that I kept forgetting to treat and they were laundered at least twice in the Fels Naptha detergent and didn't come out. One wash with the Zote detergent and the stain was gone. I think my whites are looking less dingy as well. I do think however that my clothes smelled better with the Fels Naptha after coming out of the wash. My Zote loads don't really smell like anything to me when they come out, which is fine.

Overall, I'm very happy with my homemade detergent and I plan to keep making my own. I may experiment more down the road and try the white Zote and adding those scent crystals, there are tons of recipes on Pinterest if you decide you want to give this a try.

Also, I've been using plain white vinegar to rinse and no fabric softener  Just fill up your dispenser with it. It doesn't leave stuff smelling like vinegar, and will help rinse out the soap residue. Avoid over drying your clothes, this causes lots of static! Hang up sweaters and the silky synthetic stuff to dry if you can. I found a recipe that uses vinegar and hair conditioner that I may give a try for these dry winter months when static is especially hard to fight.

By the way, I found all the ingredients at my local Walmart, except Zote which I found at BigLots. If you can't find it locally you can order it from Amazon.

*Thanks for viewing this blog post, don't forget to follow me :D

**UPDATE 5/3/2013- I have gone back to Fels Naptha, I just like the clean scent of the mixed up detergent so much better and it's easier for me to purchase locally. I tweaked SoMuchAdo's recipe by adding a full cup of name brand Oxy Clean to a double batch and I am very happy with it! I've also added a foil ball to my dryer and it does seem to reduce static. I plan to buy up some wool yarn to make dryer balls at some point, those are supposed to be great at cutting down static. Perhaps a new tutorial when I need to make a new batch!

Pins of the Week! Dec 4th

**EDIT: This weekly feature has been discontinued due to lack of response from most of the people/companies I have promoted here. This is a small blog and I was hoping this would get folks to sharing my page, helping me while I help them sort of thing. Maybe I will bring back something like this in the future. I honestly can't imagine not being grateful for every bit of exposure another wants to bring to my work... :( Anyway, the best to those of you who did express your gratitude and share! Love to you all :D **

Running a little late but here is the next installment of 'Jujubean's Pins of the Week'!

Just click on the image to go to the pin if you'd like to repin, or click on the link below to go straight to the source.These are some awesome finds, I hope you enjoy :)

Felt Cookie Garland by Nana and Company

http://nanacompany.typepad.com/nanacompany/2011/12/visions-of-sugarplums.html

So pretty I can't stand it :)

Silver Wrapped Green Turquoise Pendant by MadeBySunflower

http://www.etsy.com/listing/116589859/silver-wire-wrapped-pendant-green
I need this gorgeous pendant!

Anthropology Style Cardi Tutorial by Little Inspirations

http://little-inspirations.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-anthro-look-alike-cardigan-tutorial.html

I can't wait to try out this tutorial! Thanks for sharing your hard work :)

Sage Green Rustic Wreath by WildRidgeDesign

http://www.etsy.com/listing/94067112/soft-sage-green-rustic-fall-wreath-door

Lovely wreath :)

Pajama Pattern and Tutorial (4T) by Shwin&Shwin

http://shwinandshwin.blogspot.com/2012/12/pajama-rama-christmas-pajamas-free-pdf.html

Love this and can't wait to try it out!

I hope you enjoyed these awesome finds as much as I did!
Please take a moment to become a member or follower of this blog. Just look for the link on the right :)
You can follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/jujubeancreatio
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/jujubeancreations

Happy pinning!

JujuBean's Pins of the Week!! 11/26

It's a new week, featuring five new pins. Enjoy!

Click on the image to go to the pin on Pinterest, or click on the link below it to go straight to the source :)

Snowflake ornaments by Decoromana

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85131642/holiday-decoration-snowflake-ornament

Love, love, love these gorgeous snowflakes!

Owls by littledear

http://littledeartracks.blogspot.com/2010/11/little-owls.html
These little owls are so adorable. So much talent and time goes into these!

Medallion Necklace by FiliGraceJewelry

http://www.etsy.com/listing/87782155/medallion-necklace-sterling-silver

This is on my Christmas list if anyone is wondering ;)

Viking Helmet Pattern by Ravelry

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lael-viking-helmet
My favorite little guy needs this!

Quilted Patchwork Pillow Covers by WheretheOrchidsGrow

http://www.etsy.com/listing/88647864/patchwork-pillow-quilted-pillow-cushion
I am in love with these pillow covers. I think I need to redecorate my whole living room so I can get them :D

I hope you enjoyed these awesome finds as much as I did!
Please take a moment to become a member or follower of this blog. Just look for the link on the right :)
You can follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/jujubeancreatio
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/jujubeancreations

Happy pinning!