Merry Microfiber Blog

photo credit: swimstud1386

Are you a farmer? or do you work in an industry that leaves you with smelly clothes?

Try using Washing Soda with your laundry, it helps to remove odors.

Washing soda is one of the basic ingredients in making your own laundry detergent. Come to find out yesterday from my sister-in-law it is the ingredient that is the odor remover.

I had given some homemade laundry detergent as Christmas gifts, and she liked it because it was the first soap that really removed the barn smell from their clothes. So I had made her  some more and later she read about using washing soda for removing skunk smells from clothes, so just tried that.

For a batch of homemade laundry detergent grate up a bar of hand soap (using 2  cups) add 1 cup of Arm & Hammer washing soda and 1 cup of Mule Team Borax. Mix it altogether. Use 1-2 Tablespoons per load of laundry.

So I wouldn’t think it would take very much to add to your wash to remove smells.

Got a gun with a scope, then you need to keep a 8″ x 8″ microfiber suede lens cloth in your gun case or pocket while hunting. They are soft, superabsorbent with ultrasonic edges, to have you keep your scope lens clean, for that great shot.

Microfiber lens cloths clean without scratching,  just remember to keep them clean. Dirt can scratch but the microfiber won’t.

They are also great for cleaning your glasses or the lens on your camera. You can use them slightly damp or dry.

Need a quick wipe, use them for that too.

My daughter is a stamper and card maker. She loves working with new ideas for her scrapbooks.

Saturday, while we were there, she made some new stamps, out of the scraps from other stamps. When she buys stamps they come in a block shape, that are precut, and she has to punch out the stamp. What is leftover she makes into a new stamp. Her husband cuts up blocks of wood for her from the scraps, left over from building their house, and she attachs it to the block.

For example, she got a new snowflake stamp. She punched out the snowflake and what was left over looked like a rounded star. So she got 2 stamps in one. Then she uses these to stamp designs on a piece of paper for background sheets for her scrapbooks.

She even made herself a stamp that looked like stained glass left over from scraps after cutting out a new stamp.

She also saves her scraps from cutting out designs with her punches for other projects. Even the little pieces work good for confetti, or making stained glass windows.

I am excited to be able to offer the blue bath towels again, both the 29″ x 59″ and the 20″ x 40″ spa/turban/sport towels.

I have been out of them since last August, and now have finally been able to get them back in stock.

Pictured is the microfiber blue bath set, it includes the large bath towel, the spa/turban/sport towel and a facial cloth. These sets are priced 10% off the regular price of buying singly.

Microfiber makes for a soft, superabsorbent bath towel that dries quickly!

They are great for the whole family and your pets. These make for super towelsto have in your campers and RV’s too. Roll one up and stick in your back pack when doing overnight hiking trips. They roll up pretty tight, so they don’t take up allot of precious space.

photo credit: thienzieyung

Indoor plants are a great way to “green” your home!

Plants are green because of the chlorophyll in their leaves, they use carbon dioxide from the air and give off oxygen. So if you want to improve your oxygen levels in your home – add some green plants to your home.

There are lots of different kinds of plants you can grow in your home, with lots of different light requirements. Some plants want direct sunlight and some can live in a corner only with indirect light. My Christmas cactus like my east window in my bedroom, where they get the morning sun, and it is cooler. The african violets are doing well in there as well as in my kitchen which has a west window.

If I have room, I even like to bring in my geraniums and let them bloom in the house. They like my west windows which get lots of light. I am trying to keep a gerbena alive in our basement, but it could use more light and warmth. Hopefully it will survive till it is warm enough to set it out again.

My palm plant now has 4 flower stems coming. They make a beautiful cream and purple flower, but they only last for 12 hours. This year I have the plant in my kitchen, so hopefully I will get to see the flowers when they open; there have been times in the past when I have missed seeing it open.

If you have a home that is more on the dry side, and you don’t have a “green thumb” try growing some cactus. If you forget to water them, they are much more tolerant of lack; but  just don’t keep their “feet” wet.  

So green up your home this year with plants!

                                                                                                                                                              photo credit: Photos8.com

 Do you have some old books laying around you don’t know what to do with?

Check out this site for lots of ways to use those old books: http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2010/02/17/80-awesome-ideas-for-all-your-old-or-unwanted-books/

I also like to share my books, to help others learn as well. I have started a list in a notebook however to record books I have lent out, so I know where they have gone. Sometimes, I will think, I had a book, but where is it now? So now I have been trying to keep better track of where my books are.

I also do this with teaching CD’s and DVD’s as well. Help someone else learn too.

                                                                                                                                                             photo credit: patterson williams

Do you use stamps when scrapbooking or making cards or craft projects?

Do you use a baby wipe to clean the ink off of  your stamping blocks? My daughter does.

Then she allows the wipes to dry, after cleaning her blocks. Now the wipes are “colored” with different patterns and inks.

When they are dry, she said they look like fabric, and she uses them with her punches to make decorations for her cards.

She also uses her scraps to make other decorations for cards or bags or for scrapbooking. Her “kids” – hers and the daycare, love to help color paper and punch out decorations to make gifts for their parents.

Yesterday, my computer wouldn’t work, it has been “dying” for at least a year. So yesterday I went and bought a new one.
Now to get it set up and get all my sites back up again.

Does anyone know now what to do with an old laptop? Can you recycle them?

I may try and get it repaired, so I have an extra.

Lots to be done today, now that I again have a working computer.

photo credit: LadyDragonflyCC – Hearts on Fire <3

Be green this year when you give to those you love!

You know hugs are green nd replenishable!

If the economy has you on a tight budget, give some quality time to those you love. Guys do a job, your wife has wanted done. Be creative on doing something special for her. (and wives don’t say it is about time – appreciate it that they did it).

I know roses are the “thing” for Valentines Day, but what if your wife isn’t a rose person and loves to garden. Maybe a plant she can put out in her garden would be more appreciated. (I am talking from my own experiences. I say don’t spend money on roses – buy me a plant, a lily bulb, something I have been wanting for my garden that will give me flowers year after year.)

Guys think out of the box, be creative! Wives too!

Here are a few sites that can help you think green and out of the box.

• http://www.greenamericatoday.org/guides/valentines/index.cfm
• http://www.organicbouquet.com/c_155//Valentines-Day-Flowers.html?src=google&gclid=COPQ78qk458CFRMNDQodU2GvGw
• http://www.theultimategreenstore.com/
• http://www.pristineplanet.com/green-valentines-organic-valentine-eco-friendly-valentine-organic/valentine-gifts/15625_a_0.html
• http://www.greenandmore.com/eco-gifts.html
• http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/tips/10-date-and-gift-ideas-for-a-green-valentines-day.aspx

Last night I made up another batch of homemade laundry detergent.

It is quite easy to make and is more economical than store bought.

I had some bars of Octagon soap that I had previously bought online, and I grated them up. (I also recruited my husband to help in the grating process). I just used my Pamper Chef hand held cheese grater to grate up the soap.

One bar of Octagon gave me the necessary 2 cups of grated soap. (I have used Kirk’s castile, Ivory, Fel Naphta, and Octagon before. My sister-in-law thought the Fel Naphta soap – really helped to remove the barn smell from their clothes).

To the 2 cups of grated soap I added 1 cup of washing soda (not baking soda) and 1 cup of borax, mixing it together. I used Arm & Hammer Washing Soda and Mule Team Borax. You may have to look around in stores to find them, but they are available. I “rubbed” the grated soap in my hands to break it down further into smaller pieces, so it would dissolve better in the laundry. Sometimes I have even blended it finer in a regular blender; this works  to blend it all evenly together as well. I stored it in a plastic covered container, so it would remain dry.

When doing laundry I add 1-2 Tablespoons of the mixture per load of clothes. It doesn’t seem like alot, but it is enough. I believe we use too much laundry detergent. When my daughter got her new water purifying system, the installer, told her not to add any laundry detergent for the first few times she did laundry. He said there was enough left over inside the fibers of the fabric to get them clean. (And we wonder why we are getting more sensitized to chemicals).

If you like making your own homemade hand soaps, you could probaly 2 cups of grated soap in your laundry soap as well. Just be careful when laundering microfiber with a high fat soap, as it has a tendency to clog or coat the fibers over time. I like to use an oxygen based laundry detergent when washing microfiber.

Be creative and make your own soap. Most of the bar soaps out there will work, it really depends on how much fragrance you want in your laundry detergent. I actually prefer little or none. When I blended the batch of Ivory detergent, I found it was the most “choking”. It seemed to give off finer particles on blending than the others, but it was the easiest to grate. The Kirk’s Castile seemed to require the most “muscle” power in grinding.