DIY Fabric Softener

Super easy, cheap to make, smells great, leaves clothes soft, what's not to love? Oh, and did I mention cheap??

After looking at a few recipes online, I scaled them down and basically made my own. It took less then five minutes, and so far I love it!

Refreshing Fabric Softener
2 cups hot water
1/2 cup vinegar
2/3 cup conditioner of your choice, I used Suave as it's about $1.50 or so a bottle

Pour ingredients into a bottle or container. I used an old juice jug I had set aside.
Stir to mix.
And that's it. So easy. ^_^

 I made an easy label on Word, and I was done!

Cost breakdown:
conditioner: $0.75
vinegar: $0.25
total: $1.00
I'm not sure how many loads I will get from this, but my machine takes about 1/4 cup or less for a load. That breaks it down to 16 loads per batch, for a total of $0.06 per load.

Compared to a bottle of Downy, that is a savings of roughly $6.00 a bottle! I like it. I like it a lot. ; )

Piano Bench Re-Purpose

A little bench for our new front door area  has been a project I wanted to work on for a while, and have been keeping my eye out for a good deal for months.

Salvation Army came through again with this cute little piano bench!

Just need a little love, right? That I can do. :)

I bought some upolstry foam from WalMart for $7.50. I didn't have a tape measure to know how much I needed, so I just eyeballed it.

Perfect amount! I took the lid off, as it's hinged so I could more easily work with it.

I had some brown twill left over from a different project. I laid it all out and stapled the fabric right to the wood, it worked well! My sweet husband helped me finish it up, turns out he's an excellent upholstery re-doer helper. ;)

Just like that! Easy, easy project!

The inside of the bench has some useful storage space, as well. I told my husband that amount of space will work until we have like one child's worth of hats and mittens. ;)


Love how it finishes off our hallway, and it also matched the little hutch I redid a couple months ago.

Almost the same exact shade of brown, with black. :)

Total project cost: $12.50

Pretties.

A sneak peek of my next projects. ^_^

Baby Project: Changing Table

We were given this changing table by my husbands boss, and while not bad as it was, of course I couldn't just let it be. :P

Pretty much before, minus the different colored knobs. They were all the same color as the rest of the table, as seen as the door.

I replaced the knobs with silver from Martha Stuart Living and applied some Simply Said I had on hand already to the door.

I will be buying this pad with this cover for the top eventually.

I had just enough fabric left over from my rocking chair project to cover the shelf so it matches. :) I was agonizing over what to do with the shelf. I knew I wanted to jazz it up a little, and had bought shelf liner and other baskets, but when I realized I had this perfect-sized scrap, my decision was made. I love how it looks! All the baskets I already had.

(and yes, that is my baby stuff so far. :P Most of it I had before I was married, some has been gifts so far, and the rest was from garage sales)

Little baskets in the drawer, which I lined with some cream shelf liner I had.

Matching nursery pieces so far! :)

Baby Project: Rocking Chair

this...

to this.

 

                                                             

While ticking off the days of my second trimester (can't believe I'm coming up on half way already!), I have been getting a little stir crazy and looking for something to keep me busy.

Solution? Re purpose three pieces of nursery furniture that were free/given to us!

First on the list was the older rocking chair and ottoman set from my in laws. Not in terrible shape, but I thought it could use a face lift.

Some wood damage.

The little ottoman, which had been at our house in the midst of construction for two years!

I removed the covers from the foam pads, ripped the seams out, and measured out what I would need for fabric.

Fabric and spray paint I *finally* decided on. :P 

Sanded down and ready for...

Painting!! :)

The painting took a couple days, and I believe about 5 cans of paint (still less then $20). The fabric and pillow form were around $40.

The cushion covers were a little more difficult then I figured they would be. :P I haven't tried anything like this before, and I was completely winging it. The ottoman was super easy, I ended up just covering over the old fabric and stapling it down.

The bottom cushion was a pain because of how the pattern was. I'm sure if I was a more experienced seamstress, it would have been a breeze. But alas, I am not.

After a frustrating afternoon, though, I figured 'em out.

Hubby kindly finished the ottoman for me. He's a good spray painter. :)

Isn't that better? All ready for some baby rockin'. :)

I wanted to add a little more pop and color to the chair, so instead of making it all chaotic, I just accented.

Love the ottoman. 

I had some scraps left over from the pillow, and decided to dress up the sides a little. I just attached them at either end with adhesive velcro.