Let’s get real shall we? Not every DIY project we try turns out the way we expect. This week I have experienced 2 DIY fails! Waaah!!! Oh well, I learned some good lessons that’s for sure!
1. DIY FAIL: liquid hand soap
Yes, I thought I would try my hand at being frugal and health conscience by making my own natural, liquid hand soap. I got the idea and inspiration from a book I was reading a couple months ago.
This book has been pretty insightful for a homesteading wannabe like me. It is literally full of all sorts of information on living a self sustainable lifestyle. My great grandmother owned an original copy of this book that my sister inherited. She recommended I buy a copy to keep on hand, so I did!
Fact: I have pinned all sorts of self sustaining/ off the grid living/ prepping ideas on Pinterest over the past several months, but what good is Pinterest going to do me if something really happens? I seriously doubt I’ll have access to the Internet. Too funny! So anyways, this book is my go to guide in times of trouble or when I feel like playing Little House on the Prairie again. Hey, we own chickens and I’ve learned to can successfully, so I’m not a lost cause…
Back to making soap:
Here is the underlined scoop on how to make you own liquid soap from pure/natural bar soap according to the Encyclopedia of Country Living.
I made sure to research other people’s experiences with doing this exact thing and it seemed like it was working! I dove in and shaved down 6 to 8 bars of Ivory soap so I was sure to have a long-lasting supply of my own liquid soap. There are 7 peeps in my family so I didn’t want to run out to quickly.
I added my boiling water and watched it melt down and liquefy just like I read about. I ended up having to add quite a bit more water than the book called for but after several hours of cooking on the stove top it was at the perfect consistency. I was so excited and felt like a true homesteading mama! LOL!!
This was a couple of months ago now. As time has gone by I’ve noticed my hand soap has not been pumping out of the dispenser as well as it did in the beginning. It was beginning to separate and all I was pumping was water with maybe a tinge of soap. 
This is what it looks like today when I opened the soap dispenser. A firm glob of goo with some stab wounds from my attempts of getting another squirt of soap.
Bummer…
I guess I could scrape all the goo out of all 4 jars and plop them back in a pot to add more boiling water. This would thin it back out I assume, but would it firm back up over time? I may give it a try, but for now let’s call it a DIY FAIL and move on.
2. Hand Painted Christmas Pillows
I have been seeing all of these beautiful, country vintage looking pillows for Christmas, but rather than spend the money I thought I would make them myself. (The image above was my inspiration, not my DIY fail)
I wanted to make these for my front porch and was feeling lazy so rather than sewing pillowcase covers I decided to do the no sew version. This wasn’t where I failed however….
I wrapped my pillows first and then decided to paint them. Why I did it in that order I’m not sure but this still wasn’t where I failed….
I grabbed my paint, paint brushes, a paper plate to use as my pallete, letter stencil and then I went to town! (Not my finest work, but whatevs)
All was going well enough so I whipped out two pillows within an hour…
They weren’t perfect but they were good enough for me and FREE!
I thought after I let them dry I would attempt taking light sandpaper to them to give a more distressed look. I’ve never done that on fabric nor did I ever get the opportunity to try it out because my paint NEVER DRIED!!! That’s right, the next day the paint was still WET!!
I went to clean up all of my letter stencils thinking they would be dry by now for sure. I touched where the red paint was and it came off on my fingers! It felt like oil pastels!
I went outside to check on my pillows and sure enough they were wet as well!
I had grabbed my jar of water mixable oil paints instead of the acrylics! Apparently they never completely dry!! 
I can’t have paint rubbing off on our clothes from a pillow sooooo….woa, woa, woa….DIY FAIL number 2!!
Looking on the bright side, at least I didn’t spend the time sewing up the pillowcase covers!
Lesson learned! I may try it again using the correct paint next time….Oh well!
Anyone have a DIY FAIL they aren’t too ashamed to share?
Merry Christmas!!
Samantha Miller Interiors 