http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-abuse-withdrawal.html

 

Feedback comments containing any of the following are not permitted:

• Links or scripts.

• References to eBay or PayPal investigations

• Negative statements that conflict with a positive rating

• Personally identifying information about another member, including real name, address, phone number, or e-mail address

• Political, religious or social commentary rather than a genuine comment about the transaction

• The comment, reply or follow-up references a completely separate transaction or unrelated experience

• Profane, vulgar, obscene, or racist language or adult material

• Inflammatory language, such as "fraud, liar, cheater, scam artist, con man" etc., while strongly discouraged, will not be removed.

Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

• Listing cancellation

• Limits on account privileges

• Account suspension

• Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings

• Loss of PowerSeller status

• Feedback rating and/or comment removal

 

 

 

After reading these I find it very sad that now gives buyers the right to control the sale.   If they complain or make demands (off ebay) there is nothing we can do to prove these demands, and if they aren't met the buyer could neg us for it.  And we can't even say in the feedback that the buyer was hard to work with or couldn't please or anything remotely negative in that positve comment.

EBAY what in the #$^&*$@ are you thinking by doing this to the sellers who make the money for your site.  You think they would be giving sellers more rights instead of taking them away.

do you leave a Negative comment or No comment for bad buyers.

I'm wondering because i've got a NPB who bought an item, and I filed and just closed the dispute without the buyer responding.

But wondering what ya'll chose to do with this since we can't neg buyers anymore....

Poem is on Image

First, you come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses.

For the garden of your daily living,

 

Plant three rows of peas,

1) Peace of mind

2) Peace of heart

3) Peace of soul

 

Plant four rows of squash

1) Squash gossip

2) Squash indifference

3) Squash grumbling

4) Squash shelfishness

 

Plant four rows of lettuce

1) Lettuce be faithful

2) Lettuce be kind

3) Lettuce be patient

4) Lettuce really love one another

 

No garden is without turnips

1) Turnip for meetings

2) Turnip for service

3) Turnip to help one another

 

To conclude our garden, we must have thyme

1) Thyme for each other

2) Thyme for family

3) Thyme for friends

 

Water freely with patience and cultivate with love.

There is much fruit in your garden because you reap what you sow.

Have a great day !!!

 

A few of my eBay items - qsell

4 Enfamil RTF Grad u Feed Bottles reborn baby play doll Handmade FUN Soap Lotion Oatmeal Milk Bath 7 piece SET 4 lb 64 oz PALM OIL 4 soapmaking soap making vegan 4 lb 64 oz Coconut Oil 76 degree 4 soapmaking soap Yellow Gerber Preemie Bottle 4 Reborn Baby Play Doll 16 Sealing Disks breastmilk formula bottle storage 12oz Handmade Sugar Scrub Polish Creamy Non Oily 4oz Yellow Big Bird Bottle Pacifier Reborn Play Doll 4oz Glass Vintage Bottle 4 Reborn Baby or Play Doll 6 Piece SET Bottles Pacifier more Reborn Play Doll 16 Assorted Western Cowboy Historical Romance Books NEW 6 Preemie 2oz Baby Bottles MINT GREEN or 4 reborn 4 bars Stain Stick or to make LAUNDRY SOAP handmade Handmade Powdery Spa Quality Bath Salts U CHOOSE SCENT Angled Healthfo Milk Bottle 4 Reborn Baby or Play Doll Mommys Breast Milk Bottle 4 Reborn Baby Play Doll 12oz Handmade Sugar Scrub Polish Creamy Non Oily Juniper Breeze Handmade Cream Mango Butter Silk Soap First Kiss Handmade Goats Milk Shea Butter Silk Soap SOOTHING colloidal OATMEAL MILK BATH U Pick Scent

One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides
to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to
take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her
book.

Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and
says, 'Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?'

'Reading a book,' she replies, (thinking, 'Isn't that obvious?')

'You're in a Restricted Fishing Area,' he informs her.

'I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading.'

'Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at
any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up.'

'For reading a book?' she replies.

'You're in a Restricted Fishing Area,' he informs her again.

'I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading.'

'Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at
any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up.'

'If you do that, I'll have to charge you with Sexual assault,' says the
woman.

'But I haven't even touched you,' says the game warden.

'That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could
start at any moment.'

'Have a nice day ma'am,' and he left.


MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think.

Send this to four women who are thinkers. If you receive this, you know
you're intelligent.

A few of my eBay items - qsell

4 Enfamil RTF Grad u Feed Bottles reborn baby play doll Handmade FUN Soap Lotion Oatmeal Milk Bath 7 piece SET 4 lb 64 oz PALM OIL 4 soapmaking soap making vegan 4 lb 64 oz Coconut Oil 76 degree 4 soapmaking soap 15 lbs Washing Soda Ash Sodium Carbonate laundry soap 12oz Handmade Sugar Scrub Polish Creamy Non Oily 4oz Yellow Big Bird Bottle Pacifier Reborn Play Doll 4 bars Fels Naptha Soap stain stick laundry soap HTF 6 Piece SET Bottles Pacifier more Reborn Play Doll 16 Assorted Western Cowboy Historical Romance Books NEW 6 Preemie 2oz Baby Bottles MINT GREEN or 4 reborn 4oz Blue Bear Bottle Pacifier Reborn Baby or Play Doll 4 bars Stain Stick or to make LAUNDRY SOAP handmade Handmade Powdery Spa Quality Bath Salts U CHOOSE SCENT Angled Healthfo Milk Bottle 4 Reborn Baby or Play Doll Mommys Breast Milk Bottle 4 Reborn Baby Play Doll 12oz Handmade Sugar Scrub Polish Creamy Non Oily Juniper Breeze Handmade Cream Mango Butter Silk Soap First Kiss Handmade Goats Milk Shea Butter Silk Soap SOOTHING colloidal OATMEAL MILK BATH U Pick Scent

A few of my eBay items - qsell

Yellow Gerber Preemie Bottle 4 Reborn Baby Play Doll 16 Sealing Disks breastmilk formula bottle storage 12oz Handmade Sugar Scrub Polish Creamy Non Oily 2 5oz Green Preemie Bottle Pacifier SET 4 Reborn Doll 4 bars Fels Naptha Soap stain stick laundry soap HTF 4oz White Gerber Bottle 4 Reborn Baby or Play Doll Handmade Baby Soap Lotion Oatmeal Milk Bath 7 piece SET 6 Piece SET Bottles Pacifier more Reborn Play Doll 16 Assorted Western Cowboy Historical Romance Books Lot of 22 Assorted Romance Books Silhouette Harlequin NEW 6 Preemie 2oz Baby Bottles MINT GREEN or 4 reborn Lot of 14 Assorted Historical Romance Books cowboy Lot of 23 Harlequin INTRIGUE Contemporary Mystery Books Lot 9 Assorted Western Cowboy Historical Romance Books Bathroom Essentials Sew Pattern 6366 new and uncut Easy Canopy Canopies Sew Pattern 5126 new and uncut 4 bars Stain Stick or to make LAUNDRY SOAP handmade Handmade Powdery Spa Quality Bath Salts U CHOOSE SCENT Mommys Breast Milk Bottle 4 Reborn Baby Play Doll 12oz Handmade Sugar Scrub Polish Creamy Non Oily Juniper Breeze Handmade Cream Mango Butter Silk Soap First Kiss Handmade Goats Milk Shea Butter Silk Soap SOOTHING colloidal OATMEAL MILK BATH U Pick Scent 3 Assorted Western Cowboy Historical Romance Books

 

This is for the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up puke laced with Oscar Mayer wieners and cherry Kool-Aid saying, 'It's okay honey, Mommy's here'.

Who have sat in rocking chairs for hours on end soothing crying babies who can't be comforted. This is for all the mothers who show up at work with spit-up in their hair and milk stains on their blouses and diapers in their purse.

For all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes. And all the mothers who DON'T.

This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they'll never see. And the mothers who took those babies and gave them homes.

This is for the mothers whose priceless art collections are hanging on their refrigerator doors.

And for all the mothers who froze their buns on metal bleachers at football , hockey or soccer games instead of watching from the warmth of their cars, so that when their kids asked, 'Did you see me, Mom?' they could say, 'Of course, I wouldn't have missed it for the world,' and mean it.

This is for all the mothers who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair when they stomp their feet and scream for ice cream before dinner. And for all the mothers who count to ten instead, but realize how child abuse happens.

This is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about making babies. And for all the mothers who wanted to, but just couldn't find the words.

This is for all the mothers who go hungry, so their children can eat.

For all the mothers who read 'Goodnight, Moon' twice a night for a year. And then read it again. 'Just one more time.'

This is for all the mothers who taught their children to tie their shoelaces before they started school. And for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead.

This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot.

This is for every mother whose head turns automatically when a little voice calls 'Mom?' in a crowd, even though they know their own offspring are at home -- or even away at college.

This is for all the mothers who sent their kids to school with stomach aches, assuring them they'd be just FINE once they got there, only to get calls from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick them up. Right away.

This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can't find the words to reach them.

For all the mothers who bite their lips until they bleed when their 14 year olds dye their hair green.

For all the mothers of the victims of recent school shootings, and the mothers of those who did the shooting.

For the mothers of the survivors, and the mothers who sat in front of their TVs in horror, hugging their child who just came home from school, safely.

This is for all the mothers who taught their children to be peaceful, and now pray they come home safely from a war.

What makes a good Mother anyway?

Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips? The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time?

Or is it in her heart? Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time?

The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 A.M. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby?

The panic, years later, that comes again at 2 A.M. when you just want to hear their key in the door and know they are safe again in your home?

Or the need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a fire, a car accident, a child dying?

The emotions of motherhood are universal and so our thoughts are for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation...

And mature mothers learning to let go.

For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers.

Single mothers and married mothers.

Mothers with money, mothers without.

This is for you all. For all of us.

Hang in there. In the end we can only do the best we can. Tell them every day that we love them. And pray.

Please pass along to all the Moms in your life.

'Home is what catches you when you fall - and we all fall.'

Please pass this to a wonderful mother you know.

(I just did)

If you send this to just one person, it should make it all the way around the world by Mother's Day.

Making homemade laundry soap has been a bit of a passion of mine. I hated spending big bucks on the stuff at the store and with 3 kids you can imagine the laundry my family goes through. One pre-teen who seems to think laundry is done magically and my two youngest are special needs kids. My middle child is all about stains, meal time is often a challenge because of his lack in motor skills. At 7 he still struggles with using silverwear and often just uses his fingers when no one is looking (if he can) and then wipes his hands on his clothes. My youngest can't tolerate anything on her clothes. If she washes her hands and gets her shirt wet, then she needs to change clothes. It gets frustrating at times. Plus a husband who works in the farming industry even though he works for a grain elevator. The ground in dirt when he's doing some repairs to the dust beyond what should be legally allowed. LOL and the smells.... if he has to clean out a “boot” that has rotten grain in it. Well lets just say it would make me lose my lunch within minutes if I had to do that job. The smell is indescribable and disgusting.

Now that you know a little about my laundry needs you can see why I was searching for something that was a little more cost effective. Yet worked just as well. And as far as being “green”, it is great for the environment as well. So by making your own you can help green up our planet. Keep those plastic bottles of laundry detergent out of our landfills and you really don't need chemical detergents to clean your laundry.

Now I have searched the internet looking for different recipes. And have tried many of them. But in the end I decided to look outside the box and come up with my very own.



But before I continue all you need are the following basic ingredients:

BORAX : Found where other laundry supplies are found. Usually next to the bleach and color safe bleaches. Look for the green box of “twenty mule team borax”. Borax is used as a whitener and a deodorizer in your laundry. If your a smoker borax will even remove these odors and other nasty smells that you may find yourself dealing with.

WASHING SODA : Also found where laundry supplies are found. This is a yellow box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. Please do not confuse this with baking soda. They are two totally different products and can't be interchanged. Washing soda is used to remove the dirt and helps with removing the odors.

SOAP : Popular soaps used are the fels naptha soap which is hard to find and it can be found in the laundry isle. Or another option is a soap made with coconut oil and lard. Both these oils are highly recommended for using in a laundry soap. This is what I make for my own laundry needs. Other options are other handmade soaps either scented or unscented. If you must buy a bar where regular soaps are sold choose plain old fashioned ivory. This is the most like handmade soap of all the commercial soaps. Do not use a deodorant type bar or a beauty bar. They may smell nice but they don't work well for laundry soaps.



********************

First I will discuss the powdered version. While some may like it I see many down falls. First of all is the amount used. 1-2 tbs per load. To me this just isn't enough of the active ingredient to make it effective. If you stop and read both the boxes of borax and washing soda you will find that both boxes say to use ½ cup per load of laundry along with your regular detergent. And total that makes 1 cup if you use both. (Not including any soap.) And these handmade recipes call for 1-2 tablespoons of a mixture of the three ingredients. There is something wrong with those numbers.

The other big down fall with powdered laundry soaps is how it dissolves. Since more people are washing in cold water now days to be more environmentally friendly. If you use hot water for washing this isn't an issue for you but powdered laundry soap just does not dissolve in cold water, thus being not effective. How can it clean if it won't even dissolve into the water.

Borax requires boiling water to dissolve it. And if you dissolve it in a clear container you will know it's dissolved because the mixture will go from a milky white color to crystal clear.

But also the soap portion of the recipe will not dissolve in cold water and it will just float around. Even after letting the washer run for quite some time. When I went back the ingredients just didn't not dissolve into the cold water.

The one way I have found around this is to heat a container of water, dissolve the laundry soap into it and then pour it into the washer. But this method is both a pain and not very practical. Plus it's also a mess. Another method I found that does work is to set the water level to the lowest amount and fill with hot water. Pour in my laundry soap and agitate for a minute or two before adding the clothes and filling up the rest of the way in cold water.

The amount to use is still very questionable. But I do think that you need more than 1-2 tablespoons. I used between ½ cup and 1 cup of my powdered laundry soap.

This was not my favorite method because I found it to be a pain to make sure it was dissolved to be effective.



********************

Now on the the liquids and gels. I feel this is not very desirable because of the fact that it separates and it needs to be stirred or shaken before it can be used. I know I have better things to do than sit and stir or shake my laundry soap before it can be used. I've also seen it described in written words as “egg drop soup” and others call it slime or snot. I'm sure these are not terms that you would prefer to use with your laundry soap.

While I have made liquid laundry soap to be a complete and total gel, it's very touchy. I made it in large batches in a 5 gallon bucket several time and using the same recipe it didn't turn out as I wanted. Then using the same recipe made smaller in a smaller plastic container, it didn't turn out.

But now on to the fun part about handmade laundry soaps that most don't consider. As I said above, both the box of borax and washing soda say to use ½ cup along with your regular laundry detergent. Now on to a math lesson.



This is a common recipe.

1/3 bar fels naptha soap. This is 5.5 ounces so 1/3 bar would be a little over 1.75 ounces.

½ cup washing soda

½ cup borax

Total water amount = 32 cups of water



Now divide your 32 cups of water by your 1 cup of active ingredients not including the small amount of your soap.........

There are 16 tablespoons in a cup so that amounts to about 2 tbs of borax/washing soda per cup of your liquid laundry soap. Now these recipes tell you to use ¼ cup of the liquid/gel/glop mixture.

Now there are 3 teaspoons in a table spoon, so your 1 cup of liquid soap now has 6 teaspoons of active ingredients and you need ¼ cup which equals out to 1.5 teaspoons per ¼ cup of laudnry soap which is only a ½ tbs of active ingredient. The rest is just water.

Now are you still convinced that these recipes actually clean your clothes.



********************

Which is why I set out to make my own formulation, but I wanted to keep the water amount low. Yet I needed it to dissolve the soap and the borax. But the other big challenge was to keep it from separating.

And what I came up has the consistency of pudding more than anything.

The following photo's are taken of my own personal container of laundry soap that I use for my family. The container is one that has a tight fitting lid so it doesn't dry out and I bought it at wal-mart for about $4.99 I think. It measures 11” tall and 9” wide. The spoon is one from a dollar store and it has a long handle with a nice wide bowl part of the serving spoon. It's also a purdy color as well.








Now for the breakdown of my recipe.

And I do use about 1-2 scoops and that should be about ½ to 1 cup of my mixture. How much I use depends on how dirty the load is.

4 quarts water = 16 cups of water

6 cups of a mixture of borax and washing soda between the two active ingredients in the amounts that I found to work the best

1 bar (5.5 oz) fels naptha soap (or about 12 ounces of coconut/lard soap or choice of your your own soap)



1 cup equals 16 tablespoons and this has 6 cups of the mixture for a total of 96 tablespoons.

96 tbs into 16 cups of water is 6 tbs of the active ingredient per cup of the mixture. This is not figuring in the fels naptha soap or choice of soap added. Which equals about 4 tbs = ¼ cup and 8 tbs = ½ cup so it falls somewhere between the two.

This isn't rocket science it's just laundry soap, but you need to look at the active ingredients used to get stains out and clean your clothing of the body odors and other dirt and other stuff that makes clothes dirty.



But you do need to make sure that whatever recipe you use has enough of the active ingredient to do their job.

I'm not posting my specific recipe and more importantly the technique that I came up with yet. Because I'm not sure what i'm going to do with it yet. Because it's the technique that I think makes the difference. And I'm very happy with my laundry pudding that I came up with.

Take this video with a grain of salt......

Click on the link to view since it's not on youtube i can't embed the video itself. (link may contain adult images, but i don't see any myself but you never know so be warned but the video does not contain any adult content)

 http://www.Rude.com/v/z027PCJZMuE

 

 

I have no idea on how to handle this situation.   Christmas this year was a rocky holiday with my sister-in-law saying some really mean things to me.  To the point where i vowed i wouldn't spend another family holiday with my family if she was going to be present. 

And since i have gotten married (for the last 11 years) i have arranged each and every family holiday.   In fact my own mom looks at a calendar more often then I do, and 4 days before the holiday when I call to make the "family plans" with my parents and my brother and his family, my mom always responds that she didn't realize that the holiday was so close.  

I'm embarrassed to admit that i hate holidays just because of how they were treated when i was growing up.  I still struggle with this every single holiday.  I have no holiday decorations except my Christmas tree and those decorations that go on it.  

But this is my problem.   For Easter this year i vowed that I was not going to call to make those family plans, and well i talked to my mother the Thursdays before Easter and all she could talk about was the houses that my parents went to look at with my brother in the town that we live in.  (My brother farms with my dad and wants to move to the town we live in so he doesn't have to drive 45 miles a day (one way) to "work". )   Then on Saturday my hubby called my father to talk to him for a moment and before he rang off he said he had to go to go dye eggs with the kids.  And still nothing was said.

That really hurt that on Easter day they didn't even call their grandchildren.... to me that is inexcusable and border line not even forgivable.  

Then the following midweek my mother called to say she had a package to drop off for my kids of an Easter gift for my kids from my brother's family.   Yet my own mother didn't have anything for her grandchildren for Easter.   (She does try to have something small for her grandchildren on the holidays.)  But this year she had nothing for them, and i know money wasn't the issue, since it never is with them.  

My birthday was in April, and she did call me to wish me a happy birthday.  I did expect her to forget about that.  But all she could talk about was a stupid problem with a tractor and what they needed to go through to get the quick repair that they needed.  

Now mothers day.  She has never acknowledge the day to me even though I have three kids.   Yet i have always given her something special.   When my mother-in-law was alive i use to get a gift from her.... 

Now this year i don't know what to do about my own mother.  Get her something, make her something or ignore the holiday because her behavior makes me so mad i could cry for a week and tear down the house.

What would you do if your mother had such a change in behavior.   While i have never had a close relationship with her, we use to talk on the phone at least weekly.   Oh and they live about 6 miles from me from my door step to hers.   So it's not very far either.

just wondering, why do i even care anymore.....  makes me feel less of a person......  but at the same time it hurts me to know that her choices hurt her grandchildren.  And i wish i knew a way to make them better grandparents who actually wanted and even requested to spend time with them.

stupid entry i know

with mothers days approaching, do you do something special for your daughters and daughter-in-laws that are the mothers of your grandchildren?