How to make your own Laundry Soap ( my new fave thing!)

1 Box of Borax

1 Box of Arm and Hammer's Washing Soda

1 Bar of Fels-Naptha soap ( buy more they are CHEAP 98 cents)

1 5 gallon bucket

and VIOLA your ready!

Fill your bucket up with 3 gallons of water,

1/2 cup of Borax
1 cup of A&H Washing Soda
1 whole bar of Fels Naptha (grated on a cheese grater)

get a pan and take the water from the 5 gallon bucket fill the pan 1/2 full of water

In the 5 gallon bucket pour in the Borax and A&H Washing Soda MIX WELL

Take the Fel Naptha (grated and put it in the pan of water and put on the stove over a med/low heat and let it melt completely. When melted pour this mixture in the 5 gallon bucket and MIX WELL! Put the lid on and let sit overnight. When you check it out in the morning it will look like goup........its OK....let me tell you this stuff WORKS GREAT, and its cheap and you feel good you made it!

USe a scoop or a 1 cup measurer and use 1 scoop per load.....this 5 gallon bucket lasted me 2 months!

Loving the Sunshine and the gardening time

After 4 years the back yard is looking full, lush and garden chic-ish!

I was so thrilled to see all my fruit trees have decided to bare fruit this year; my Mutsu Apple, Fuji Apple, Italian Prune and my Kim Elberta Peach!!! Every single one is LOADED with fruit, and I can proudly say all organic.

With the Funky Season we have had with El Nina, I fear my veggie garden will not be producing until late July......my poor tomatoe plants still look like seedlings!

And my girls AKA the chickens have scratched up all my carrot and beet seedlings....little stinkers but they are happy and Im happy watching them scratch and look for bugs! Talking about my girls, I had to get rid of one and get a new one, because one went mean on us.....so she got taught a lesson and went to a new home where she is at the bottom of the food chain and she got put in her place real quick and we got Splash......a one year old cohchin bantam....she is sooooo cute! See pix below!

Im enjoying my herbs that Im using for tea and cooking, its so fun walking out to the patio and picking some mint for some evening tea!

I promise to have more time to dedicate to blogging as I had a friend help me get set up on Goggle Read and I uploaded all my faves to my Android and I sit at Swim practice and catch up on blog reading so I thought I better write on mine more......so be watching for more blog writing from The Green Mum.! BLESSINGS

Alittle taste of The Green Mum

An afternoon in the Garden with Frolic

I helped Bonnie from Lulafaye at Frolic; Antiques in the Garden yesterday and it was so beautiful.. I met so many new people....which was a treat. I have spent all morning following all their BLOGS and looking around! I have such great inspiration for my booth at Roses and Rust.

Here are some PIX from yesterday!

Interesting Read from a fellow member of Redding Handmade.

I decided to do an article for our blog about "Creative Idea Theft", because as artisans we will all deal with having our ideas stolen at some point. It is so frustrating to have this happen because you put so much of yourself into your creative thinking. To have someone come along and look at what you have done and go, "Oh I love that, I'm going to do it", and then they turn around and make and sell the very same thing, is very disheartening.

I have had people say that I should take it as a compliment that someone likes my designs enough to copy them.......well I don't.........I look at it as theft.

And that's not to say that it isn't ok to follow trends and styles or to see a "look" that you like and then come up with your own designs in relation to that style, but to "copy" what someone else has spent time and mental energy on is just wrong. It's very unprofessional and unethical.

How can we protect ourselves from this? Unfortunately, it is almost impossible. You cannot copyright an idea, only a tangable product and to get a copyright for each and everything you make would be expensive and very time consuming. So, I guess all we can do is hope that there are not too many unethical people out there.

I know everytime I do a show there will be at least one person that says to their friend, "Oh, I can make that". They probably won't though - at least not to sell. But for people who are in the business of selling what they make and they turn around and start selling what they have copied -- it's just wrong.

Roses and Rust Garden Market

Please mark your calenders for June 4th for Nor Cal's 2nd Annual Roses and Rust Garden Market....last year was AWESOME this year will be SPECTACULAR!

http://rosesandrustvintagemarket.blogspot.com/2011/03/look-back-at-our-first-barn-show.html?spref=fb

My favorite colors