A little 'DIY' today...

So... I am currently obsessed with around-the-house 'DIY.' A friend of mine got me hooked on 'Pintrest', which is a website for sharing ideas and links through online bulletin boards (www.pintrest.com). I came across a number of do-it-yourself links on several friends' bulletin boards, and now I'm hooked! I've always been partial to 'do-it-yourself' type things. You know I love making baby slings and I've picked up knitting,crocheting, and quilting from time to time. And I am really partial to saving money...especially living life on a budget in China's most expensive city! So here is what I spent 15 minutes doing today....

Any guesses?

That would be homemade body wash cooking on the stovetop. And here are my ingredients:

1 bar of soap - 2.5rmb (40 cents)

1 Tbsp Glycerin - 1.5rmb (25 cents)

10 cups of water - basically free out of the tap

I grated a bar of soap (with a little help from Vera, who is always eager to help in the kitchen!), put it in the pot with 10 cups of water and added 1 Tbsp of glycerin (to make it smoother). I bought the glycerin on 'taobao' (China's amazing online shopping experience) for about 6 rmb for that whole bottle. I warmed it all up until it was all smooth, which took about 5 minutes. And, there I had 10 cups of body wash for about a dollar!

Unfortunately I did not think through the 'container to put this body wash in' aspect of this DIY experiment. So it is currently in an old laundry detergent jug I had recently finished...waiting for some sort of pump to get empty so I can refill it with this for the shower.

Here is the original webpage with the instructions that I followed:

http://www.savvyhousekeeping.com/how-to-turn-a-bar-of-soap-into-liquid-hand-soap/

And what would a Swem blogpost be without a cute picture of one of the girls? This is what Geneva was up to tonight...

I'm 95% sure that Vera helped her put on the doggie harness. Putting the baby in it like a baby carrier was all Geneva, though. My baby loves baby carriers! She spent part of the morning on my back in a carrier while I vacuumed (she is currently going through a 'mommy hold-me whenever there is a loud noise' stage).

She is also wearing her favorite outfit these days...a BumGenius cloth diaper and nothing else!