Tea at Trianon: Homemade Laundry Detergent

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Homemade Laundry Detergent

From The Parisienne Farmgirl:

I had just experimented with a new batch of homemade laundry detergent, the day was gloomy and gray and I had nothing else to share. Truth be told I was kind of annoyed with myself for posting something so uninspiring as laundry detergent but… the feedback? Geesh! Ya’ll wanted my new recipe even with it’s super-lame-January-gray photo so here goes.

I learned how to make homemade laundry detergent back in the day of trying to get debt-free. It was a horrid time for I think we were pretty much out of work too. It was one chapter of many during our debt-free struggle where we were trying to do it under extreme financial stress. This was one of those things that made me feel empowered. Sadly, a few years later I got savvy to the horrible cancer causing chemicals in one of my original ingredients; Fels Naptha. I mean that stuff cleans like the dickens, and it’s totally “old-timey” but wow. I now use it for extreme oil based stains only.
It was time to tweak.

Here’s what you need for my new recipe. I doubt it’s not all that different from most of the recipes out there but I gave it a test run yesterday on a white load and was very pleased. (Read more.)