The Johnston's: July 2011

Saturday, July 30, 2011

{Sedona}

Hello Friends! I know it's been a while since my last post. We were in Sedona with our family last week! As I mentioned in a previous post, Every year our family goes up to Sedona & we stay at a place called Garlands Lodge. We always have so much fun! Here are some pics from our trip!

{One of our favorite coffee shops in flagstaff}

{Willy gets the Macys special. I love the Cafe Bohemian. Yum!}

Hope you all are having a wondeful week!!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

{Grape picking}

Thursday, July 21, 2011

{Happy Skin!}

So, William & I have a lot to save up for, I mean, with a baby on the way & all. But one thing we are really trying to save up for {that is pretty huge} is a water softener system for our house. Our water is TERRIBLE! We have both had several issues with the water in our home, with dishes, clothes and our skin. We want to try & have this done before baby johnston gets here.
As you may know, water softeners are very expensive.. so we are saving all of our lose change in a jar, & were going to put it all towards a water softener....eventually haha

We're calling it "The happy Skin fund!" because we think it will make our skin much happier to have softer water :) It will probably take us a while to save up, im sure. But as of right now we have about $22 & 33 cents! Its a start!

Hope you are having a great week!!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

{Homemade Dishwasher Detergent}

A lot of people that we know have been asking me if I know a recipe for homemade dishwasher detergent. The answer is, yes! Yes I do! When I first began making our home cleaning products a couple of years ago, this was the first thing I tried to attempted. I tried LOTS of different recipes. Some of them left a film on the dishes, some of them didn't clean very well, and some of them just smelled funky. The one that we currently use, we have been using for quite some time now & love it. Here is the recipe if you are interested! I promise it's TOTALLY EASY!!!

You Will need:

* 1/2 C. Dr. Bronners Sal suds

* 1/2 C. H2O

* 1 t. Lemon juice

* 3 drops Tea Tree essential oil

* 1/2 C. white vinegar

** If you would like to, you can add a few drops of another essential oil, ALONG WITH the tea tree oil to cover up the vinegar smell. Up to you! I would suggest a few drops of Lavender :)

Mix all in gredients together in a container with a lid that seals well.

Give it a good shake, & you're done! See? I told you it was easy!

* Per Load, you will use 1T. Put it directly into the little compartment on your dishwasher where you normally put your dish soap. You will want to give it a good shake before you use it every time.

* Another thing we do: Instead of using Jet dry in the dishwasher, we just use white vinegar. Just pour the white vinegar in the little hole you usually pour jet dry! It works wonders. I promise :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a break down of all the ingredients, in case you were wondering what all those things do & how cost effective making your own dishwasher detergent is :)

Dr. Bronners Sal Suds: {$11.48 for 32 oz. on Amazon} It is a Super concentrated, natural, all purpose cleaner that is gentle on the skin. It works well in hard & soft water. You could also use Dr. Bronners Castile Soap in any scent, instead of the sal suds if you like, but i feel like the sal suds works a little better for this specific use.

Lemon Juice: {$1 for squeezy lemon thing, anywhere!} Fights soap residue & cuts grease

Tea tree essential oil: {$5 at whole foods} natural Anti viral & anti bacterial essential oil.

White vinegar: {$1 at Walmart} Rinse aid. Leaves you dishes sparkling & gets rid of residue.

How does it compare?

Just looking at the Sal suds, with one bottle, you can make this recipe 8 times. Each time you make the recipe you get about 20-24 loads...So.. 24x8= 192. 192 loads of dirty dishes for about $18 {add all the ingredients prices up}. sound good? I think so :)

Let's use Cascade Complete as an example of a store bought detergent, {That's what we used to use}.

It is about $7 for 26 loads. 26 goes into 192 about 7 times... so.. 7x7= 49.

$49 vs. $18 for 192 loads?? I think the homemade dishwasher detergent wins the price battle :) & It honestly works just as well!

Enjoy!!

Hope you all had a wonderful week!! Happy Sunday :)

Thursday, July 14, 2011

{Pinetop trip}

Hello friends! Again, I havent posted in a very long time. But of course, I have a good reason :) William & I have been in Pinetop with his grandparents & cousins {annie & mark} most of the week. William's grandparents have a cabin up there. We try to go up there a few times a year to just relax & play a few rounds of golf {even though I am absolutely terrible}. This week we did just that! We had a blast! We went fly fishing, played golf, & played LOTS of mexican train. Here are some pics from our trip!

{Willy & Mark getting ready to fish!}

{Annie & Mark in the Canoe}

{Me & willy all suited up to go intertube fly fishing!}

{William fly fishing from the intertube}

{It rained ALOT while we were there, especially while we were golfing}

{Soaked! & still playing}

{Annie was a good sport, playing through the pouring rain. A lot more brave than myself!}

{Mark teeing off}

{William, looking pro}

{Me, sitting in the golf cart haha}

{We went go cart racing too!}

{william}

{William}

{I dont look much like a golfer in my Toms, white jean shorts, & my Liz claiborne maternity top haha}

{William made pancakes}

{Mexican train! We played every night!!}

{We love our family!}

In a couple weeks we head out to Garlands, for yet ANOTHER family trip. Looking forward to it greatly :) Did you do anything fun this week? Have anything exciting coming up soon?

Happy Thursday!!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

{Garlands}

Garlands Lodge is a great place in Sedona that our family loves. My husbands family has gone there every summer for the past like 50 years! I've had the chance to join them the last 3 years, this year will be the 4th year. We always go sometime in July. This year, were going closer to the end of July, & we are getting more and more excited every day! It is something we look forward to all year! It is always just a fun time with family. Here are some pictures from the past years we have gone:

{2008}