Monday, July 12, 2010

La Bonne Vie - { The Good Life }

I'm feeling very Barbara Good-ish today. Remember that gorgeous classic T.V show "The Good Life" where Barbara and Tom Good threw away the traps of modern living and decided to live a simple, sustainable and self sufficient existence in their home on the Avenue. Well apart from wearing dungarees...I baked bread, whipped up a new batch of washing up liquid, tended to the vegie patch and made some laundry powder. Barbara would have been proud!

I've been happily using a lovely recipe from the earth angel that is ecoMILF for my washing powder but have decided to try using Sunlight Soap this time just for a change...and because castille soap is a little tricky to find in my neck of the woods and a wee bit expensive. Here's the recipe:

1 1/4 cups of bicarb soda

3/4 cup borax (don't be scared...it's a naturally occurring mineral and although poisonous if ingested, makes the environment happy and doesn't harm bubba bottom skin)

1 cup lectric washing soda (I got mine from IGA - the powder dissolves better than the granules so its worth the hunt)

2 finely grated castille soap bars (I initially used a Rose and a Lavender Dr. Bronner's but this time I'm trying Sunlight Soap)

It is easy peasy lemon squeezy to make and you only need about 2 tablespoons per load (for a front loader). It even does a great job of scary "stand up on their own" stained cloth nappies. Eeeek!



Well after such a productive day I think I'll turn in. Best check that Pinky and Perky are fed and watered and that Geraldine hasn't escaped into Margot's flower beds again. Jerrrry!! I'm picturing a quiet night listening to the wireless and passing some khaki thread through my loom....can you tell I seriously loved that show!

Ah the good life! Fictional and in reality!!

7 comments:

Heidi said...

I am wondering if your show is similar to the one we had where they moved from Park Avenue to the country, Green Acres was the name of the show. I loved it too! Hope you had a quiet night as hoped.

Kylie said...

Hope you had a quiet night:)

Snap - I as going to suggest to you that you use some washing soda in the machine - I poped some in with the wash the other day and it striped the nappies and got rid of the oily grime on the rubber sill on the washing machine.

Are you sure we are not sisters seperated at birthd - great minds think alike.

Sarah - Red Gingham said...

Oh she would have been very proud of you! I too am going down this path and was wondering about washing powders. I have a daughter with very sentitive skin which reacts with anything other that the most sensitive of washing powders. Not familiar with some of these ingredients, do you think it would be suitable? I love your pink container too!

Kathy said...

That laundry powder almost looks good enough to eat... mind the borax though of course!
PS. Thankyou for the lovely welcomes back to Blogland:)

Jill said...

Oh I used to love The Good Life too! I remember sitting with my family as a kid, all of us in hysterics watching it!!

Thanks for posting the washing powder recipe - I'm going to give it a go!

Claire Gale said...

hehehehe i loved the good life and what a perfectly productive day you had, so satisfying hey :)

Katie@ Grow. Cook. Sew. said...

Steph, you inspired me to make my own laundry powder too.

Its was so easy and worked out really well.. Thanks for the great idea!

I wrote a little post about it..
http://growcooksew.blogspot.com/2010/07/eco-living.html

Katie x

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