Homemade Laundry Soap

This is way better then the store bought laundry soap. You only have to use 1 Tablespoon per load. This recipe made a bucket full of soap and is going to last a year I bet. I made mine last night and it was great - it smelled great, cost only about $20, and only took me about 15 min to make. I will never go back to store bought!

Here is what you need:

(via http://beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/2010/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html)

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) I found this in the detergent isle but could also be with the cooking stuff

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

2 small containers of oxyclean or store brand oxyclean (try to get about 3.5 lbs total (1.58 kg)) found in the detergent isle.

(I used only 1)

(you can also use pink Zote soap instead of Fels-naptha. I had really wanted to but could not find it anywhere)

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

This detergent is fairly mild smelling, it is not over powering. If you love a strong scent you may have to add a fabric softener to each load.

Start out by grating your Fels-naptha soap just like cheese. You can use a food processor or just use your hand held grater, what ever you have.
**Don't worry the Fels-naptha will dissolve in your washer even if you only use cold water like me.**

Toss all ingredients in a 5 gallon bucket lined with a garbage bag. This part makes your whole house smell great. Once everything is mixed store soap however you like. I used a cleaning bucket I found at walmart and used the scoop from inside the oxyclean. Worked out awesome!

Kasey and Nic's Engagement in Taylors falls/St. Croix Falls

Nic lives out of town and is an engineer in the Air Force (how cool is that!) so we had to squeeze in an engagement session over the holidays while he was here. I was amazed at the weather - I mean have you ever seen photos with this much sun and warmth at the end of December in Minnesota? It was beautiful! oh do I love the sun it makes for such beauty in the photos with light streaming in everywhere, I could do so many fun and creative things, and Kasey (who is a teacher) is so fun and wanted unique photos - so we just walked around the 2 towns and had fun together - I am so excited for next September these two are going to be so amazing in their wedding attire! Thank you Kasey and Nic for choosing me for your photographer you are both amazing - enjoy the photos!

Pine City Newborn

Baby M. Came into the world a little earlier than planned but she is as healthy as can be, and such a sweet easy going baby. I loved photographing her, and loved using some of my new hats on her, as well as a special one made by grandma. Here is the precious bundle of joy.

Baby Henry

Little Henry is just so adorable - need I say more :) I love photographing him and his sweetness.

I love this next one - he seems to be saying... oh hi my momma.

Thoughts on Success and Eating Cake.

So I follow the blogs of several well known photographers and many of them focus on "leaving your nine to five, or getting out from behind the cubical" as if that is the key to success. I suppose for many people that is the goal. They have become photographers to get out of dead end jobs or it is their passion to only do photography. And many times I have judged myself against that thought, and felt unsuccessful, when really I never should have done that. My husband, sweet that he is, gave me a little pep talk on my feelings of success (or lack thereof) and I took some things from that conversation and mulled it all over, and came to the conclusion that everyone else's definition of success doesn't work for me.

At the end of the day I am extremely lucky to do what I do both for my day job and my business. I like doing what I do and I want to have my cake and eat it too. I went to school all those years ago to become a graphic designer...I love to design, and lucky me I have a fantastic job with an amazing company that hired me to be in charge of the design department, I love it! And bonus... its minutes from home. Awesome.

I also love my photography work. It is my creative outlet, the way I can expressive myself freely, and capture your expressions in an artistic way. It makes me happy to make my clients happy, and gives me a satisfaction like I have never had before. I love to see the feedback that someone gives to me when an image I created made them laugh or cry or feel loved.

So in conclusion, after re-evaluating the meaning of success for me in my life, I realize that having my day job makes me very successful, having my photography business makes me very successful, having a happy marriage with a wonderfully supportive caring and loving husband makes me very successful, having 3 beautiful healthy children that I love makes me very successful, and I dont want to give up any of those areas to reach what someone else's version of success is. I will have my cake and eat it to, thank you very much, because thats what you should do with cake.

P.S. The company I work for Cartech books Just launched their brand spanking new website at http://www.cartechbooks.com/ you can find lots of gifts their for the car buff in your life (and you can see me and the crew and some of my photography work on the about us page.) Enjoy the thanksgiving holiday everyone - wishing you all your own version of success.

The Nelson Family

Sara is an amazing creative person who I feel has a similar spirit to my own. I met her and her beautiful family for some photos at their house in North Branch for some fun photos. Here are the beautiful results.

Her little boy really loves his kitten, so we started off with taking a few pictures of him and his pal.

These two brothers are so nice to each other! I loved how willing they were to give each other a hug.

So this next one is my favorite from the day - I got all mushy when I saw it!

Sarah and Nicks 2011 Family photos

Nick and Sarah have been coming to me for their families photos for years and years now and I swear every year gets more fun! This year we had a bit of a weather issue but you cant tell by the beautiful photos. This year they had an extra couple families with them so we had a crazy fun time with all of those kids! Here are the previous years, its fun to see the kids grow-up! 2008 2009 2010.

Thank you Nick and Sarah for year after year coming to me and being so willing to try all my new ideas you guys are the best!

I love tickle fights :)

The whole group with grandma

ahhh yes - here is the family I know and love - I knew eventually I would capture the real you's.

:) hahaha

Awww cut it out you two - your just to darn adorable together!!

Anna's fun family photo session

We had so much fun running around the Cambridge city park - we enjoyed one of the last wonderful sunny days of fall. The kids had so much fun running around that it was hard to reign them in for photos, but we did get them to pause once and awhile for some fun photos. Enjoy.