All Natural Soaps & More

 

Welcome to our adventure in homemade soaps, lotions and more.  The adventure started over a year ago  in early 2013 when my wife and I decided to start making more of our own laundry soap.  We did it to save money at first and then found out how much better our life is without all the added chemicals that are added to commercial products.  I started researching homemade soaps and now it has grown into a passion, and love for, making great smelling and good for you soaps, lotions and more.  Please won't you join us on this adventure and enjoy some of the fruits, (or soaps) of our labors.  We hope you enjoy our products and come back often.  We love repeat customers.

Many of you may like commercial soaps because of their large amounts of lather, but in my research this is what I found...

We have come to associate the effectiveness of our cleaning products with the amount of lather they generate while being used. What most people don’t realize, is that soap, shampoo, toothpaste and other cleaning products (both personal and household) don’t need to have a lot of lather to do their job. Soap lather, which suspends dirt by creating greater surface tension in water, traps dirt for easy removal through rinsing. But we don’t require a ton of lather to get the job done.

Many personal care products have a foaming agent added to them. That’s how we get that frothy lather we know and love. The most commonly used foaming agents are cocamide DEA, MEA or TEA. These particular chemicals serve no purpose other than to make shampoo thick and foamy.

Most soap lather is artificially created because of customer demand, not because it is needed for cleaning. Retailers of soaps and shampoos see the opportunity to make their products look better by claiming that more lather equals cleaner body parts. It’s very inexpensive to put chemicals into soaps to make them lather unnecessarily, and the result is that we end up smearing more toxins onto our bodies than are unhealthy, all for the misconception of being a cleaner soap.

After reading this, do you still want a lot of lather in your soap or on your body?

 

If you made it here from my business card, I want to let you know that we have started our own web store and by clicking on the link below it will take you directly there;

 

www.homemadesoapsbythewaiteestate.weebly.com

Phase 3 Lots of Cupboard Space and Completion

It’s been a long project but I have enjoyed it very much.  Finally on Saturday,I completed the last of the kitchen side of the basement remodeling project.  All cabinets are built and hung and all flooring and trim are installed and painted or stained.  Here is a look at the cupboard building process and then some final pictures of the completed project.

Christi said she needed a lot of cupboards so we created about 9’ worth. These are made all out of maple plywood and solids.

Tyler and Gracie even got in the act and helped me out.

Gracie just loved just hanging out with me as I worked on the cabinets.

                                   

Christi was just thrilled to start stocking her new cupboards.  Everyday she would ask, “Can I fill my cupboards yet?”

Now it was time to build the doors for the cupboards.

Cupboards all stained and finished.

                   

Some final pictures of the completed project.

 

Here is one picture of our completed laundry/bathroom.

                      

 

Guess what I started today, yet, another project. Stay tuned for updates.

                    

I hoped you have enjoyed watching our project through to completion.

 

Dale & Christi

Hudsonville High School Construction Update 6

It’s been quite a while since I posted about this subject but we had gone on vacation and just had not gotten over there so here goes.

The new bus barn is coming along nicely and will be very nice when done.

                               

The new freshmen campus building is going up nicely.

The work seems to be progressing quite nicely now, after all is has to be completed by the start of the 2014 school year.

 

Hope everyone is enjoying a nice fall wherever you are at.

Hudsonville High School Construction Update 5

Christi and I took our weekly walk tonight, and took some more pictures of the construction going on.  The new Freshmen building is underway and the footings are going in.  You can see South school in the background which will not be there for long.

                                

The Bus barn continues to show progress, but after all, it is just a bus barn, how exciting can that get.

South school, which many of the Waite boys attended, is finally being torn down, and I have to say, it is kind of sad even through they are getting a brand new school.  Christi and I just happened to be driving by when she noticed they were starting to tear it down, so we turned around and I snuck a couple of pictures and even grabbed a brick for me to keep as a memento.

I went for a walk that evening and snuck inside the building and took some pictures.

It was kind of creepy as it was if the school had just let out and there was even a nice message on the white board  for the students.

                           

Tonight when we went for our walk we looked at it for most likely the last time, as it most likely will all be gone by the end of next week.  There was even a couch sitting in the hallway near the entrance.

                     THANK YOU SOUTH SCHOOL, YOU HAVE SERVED US WELL

 

Look for more updates soon,

Dale

Phase 2 - Lots Of New Drawer Space

My latest project took place in our lower level kitchen and involved building a cabinet with a lot of drawers.  Once again I built it out of Maple plywood and solids.

I assembled these with Blu-motion drawer slides which allows the drawer to close automatically when given a soft push and causes them to close nice and slow and quiet.

The cabinets are all built and finished and Christi couldn’t wait to fill the drawers.  When the project was getting close to being done she kept asking, “Can I put stuff in the drawers now”.  She is so excited she even offered to put the drawer handles on.

A friend from church, who is a great craftsman, put the Formica on the top before I installed the countertop on the cabinet. Once that was on I installed the back splash.

The finished product along with a picture we had taken when we were in Florida in 2007 completes the look.

Time to start Phase 3! These next cabinets will hold Christi’s cake and baking supplies, along with the multitude of photo albums she assembled over the years.

 

Thanks for looking!

Dale

A Fun Filled 4th Of July With Family

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day.  We had a great time with our kids and grandkids. This year our youngest son Joey and his wife Melissa invited everyone over to their home in Holland.  But before we went there some of us went to the parade in Allendale which was held on the Grand Valley Campus. Julie and Tyler were in the parade and walking for their Karate  school.

It was a picture perfect day for a parade and you know it is time for the parade to start when you see the police car come by.  Everyone is anxiously waiting for it to start.

Here they come!!!!  It was great to see all the military branches represented.

  

                         What would a parade be without a FIRE TRUCK!!

There were a lot of antique cars, and some great classic cars.

 

If you like tractors this is the parade to attend as there were many of them.

And of course there were lots and lots of GREEN John Deere’s, and even one PINK tractor representing breast cancer awareness.

 

A parade is a great time for taking some family pictures so we made sure we got some fun ones,

As I mentioned the big reason we enjoyed this parade is because our daughter Julie and grandson Tyler were in the parade.  They are part of a Karate club and so they are showing off some of their skills in the parade.

                 This is Julie, and her friend Julia who is also in the club.        

                 

After the parade it was off to Joey & Melissa’s home for some good eats.

Joey is showing off his grilling skills and then it was time to sit down and eat some great food. This picture with the blue tablecloth out under a tree brings back many a memory of eating outside at Mom & Dad Waite when they lived on 32nd street.

Then it was time for some fun games.  Everyone was able to play even Gracie, but Gracie enjoyed being the helper most of all. First up was bean bag toss and yes I came out on top!!

 

Next up Tyler wanted to play some basketball so we played a fun game of H-O-R-S-E.  This time Jeff came out the victor. 

                             Julie shows how to do the flamingo shot!!

                           

There was even time for a quick nap, that is until Gracie whispered in Jess’s ear that it was time for desert.

                   

We also had some fun taking some more candid shots. 

                   I saved the best picture for last.  The love of my life!!!!!

                                     

We have always had a love for playing Frisbee golf and this year Joey took us to an actual Frisbee golf coarse with many trees and ponds.  Joey on the first hole said to please try and stay away from the ponds as the Frisbee don’t float.  So on the first hole what did I do on my first throw is to throw it right into a pond.  Off came my socks and shoes and I wadded in up to my knees, but I found it along with another one. #BONUS!

Jeff even got to show off his tree climbing skills after we put one in a tree.

Along the way Gracie was walking with Gramma and then they came upon a NAP weed.  Gracie had to sniff it and said she was getting sleepy.  So Jeff being our family plant expert was asked to find an AWAKE flower.  We had a good laugh out of that one.

Of course we had to get a couple more pictures taken.

                            

                       Happy 4th from all of us in the Waite family!!