My Favorite Cleaning Supply...

We ALMOST made it through the winter without getting sick...then BAM a nasty cold has hit our house hard this week. First it was the baby, then me, now my hubby too. All I have done this week is wipe noses, wash hands, and try to keep my house disinfected to prevent spreading any more germs. The other day I mentioned I am trying to go more of a natural route when it comes to cleaning, and a few months ago, you may even remember a post about home made cleaners. We have fallen in love with vinegar in my house! You may think "Yuck the smell", but as soon as it is dries the smell is gone.

The other day we bought a giant 2 gallon box of white vinegar from Costco and it listed a bunch of uses for vinegar. I am going to post my favorite 10, there are far more uses than this though!

1: Toilet Bowl Cleaner- Clean & deodorize your toilet bowl by pouring undiluted white distilled vinegar into it. Let it stand about 5 minutes, then flush. Stubborn stain may require a gentle scrub.

2: Ants- Ant invasions can be deterred by washing counter tops, cabinets, and floors with distilled vinegar. This is a lot more pet and child friendly than ant poison!

3: Grass or Weeds- Kill unwanted grass on sidewalks and driveways by pouring on vinegar. Love the alternative to poison.

4: Irons- Remove burn stains from your electric iron by mixing one part salt with one part vinegar in a heated small aluminum pan.

5: Glassware- 1/2 cup of distilled white vinegar added to a gallon of rinse water will remove soap film from glassware and make it shine. I just add it to my dishwasher, no need to buy Jet Dry.

6: Vegetables- Liven up slightly wilted veggies by soaking them in cold water and vinegar.

7: Meat- A marinade of 1/2 cup of your favorite vinegar and a cup of liquid bouillon makes an effective meat tenderizer.

8: Cheese- Keep cheese moist and fresh by wrapping it in a cloth that has been damped with vinegar and sealed in an air tight wrap or container.

9: Onion Odors- Quickly remove onion odor from your hands by rubbing them with distilled white vinegar.

10: Flowers- Add 2 TBSP of vinegar plus 3 TBSP of sugar to a quart of warm water to keep fresh cut flowers blooming longer.

What do you use vinegar for?

One Dollar Wednesday...St. Patty's Day wreath

I'm gonna just say this, and I know it may rub a few people the wrong way, I don't believe in LUCK. That said, it makes decorating for St. Patty's Day kind of hard for me. I know I have to get the Valentines Day stuff stored away, so that pushes me forward. I love to decorate for my kiddos too. They get so excited about the "little things" still. So my next couple posts will be about my St. Patty's Day decor.

I wanted to make a cute wreath, and knew that I had a June wreath in my garage to work with. "What's a June wreath?" you ask. It's the wreath I put out in June, of course. Since it didn't hold a special place in my heart, I decided to revamp it.

Add a little GOLD frame from the Dollar store, and some GREEN scrapbook paper...



First, I disassembled my little frame...



I cut my scrapbook paper to fit my printer, and printed out the word Lucky! in the Curlz font. Then I traced my glass and cut the paper to size.



I put my frame back together, and figured out how I wanted it situated on my wreath.



I added a big spot of hot glue, and waited for it to dry.


There we go, quick and easy! I'm taking bets on how long you think my hot glue is gonna hold up in these warm temps :)....



What do you think?

Organizing Your Cleaning Supplies: Tidy Tips.

My baby became mobile about a month ago and is now zooming around the house getting into whatever he can find! He had been somewhat mobile for about 3 months scooting around, but didn't really start crawling until about a month ago. We have started the child proofing and the first thing we did was get all dangerous things up high. Here is what I did with the cleaning supplies to keep them out of babies reach, yet still easy to use.

I bought a couple cleaning caddy's at Target, one for the bathroom supplies, one for everything else. Before having a mobile baby I had the cleaning supplies on lazy susans underneath the sinks in each room, but I like this even better!

I have the caddy's far out of reach, up high in my laundry closet, then I just grab the caddy I need for the room I am going to clean. Easy and convenient.
We are trying to move toward more natural, non chemical cleaners in our house, and are slowing phasing out buying new cleaners at the store. Now if only spring would hurry up and get here, but this weekend we got another few inches of snow. :(

Have you had to baby proof? What are your tricks?

Snacking Made Fun!: Weekend Website

You have probably noticed that I tend to get on themes when posting, I know I am a total weirdo. Right now my "theme" is food as you may have guessed, so I thought I would share this adorable snack, peanut butter and fruit sushi. I.LOVE.SUSHI. I could eat it everyday and never tire of it. Unfortunately for me, my budget doesn't allow for many sushi outings these days, once every few months, if I am lucky. We did go a few weeks ago though, and I introduced my baby boy with a vegetarian roll, he seemed to enjoy it! I already mention I love Apartment Therapy, and when I saw this over at the kitchn, I couldn't resist, doesn't it look so fun? I am going to be trying this out soon, it is a fun healthy snack! Enjoy your weekend!!

Family photo collage

I have wanted a family collage picture for quite some time, but didn't LOVE the standard store-bought ones. I dug out this big old EMPTY picture frame and knew it would be perfect for this project.



Outside for a quick coat of spray paint...



While my picture frame dried, I cut my various scrapbook paper "scraps" into 2 inch squares.



I ordered gobs of black and white photos, and got to work cutting those into 2 in. squares also, with the exception of the center photo, it's bigger~ a picture of me and my sweetie~ and measures 4in X 4in.



I did a little dry brushing around the edges of each photo, and then arranged them in my frame.





I added a poignant vinyl quote on the wall, and hung my collage in the middle. Quick and easy, and dear to me!

Tidy Tips For Your Waistline

I know it sounds cliche', but one of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to lose weight. I have been working toward that goal lately, and then with my Mother's recent health problems, I have been thinking a lot about what I am eating.

I have been doing fairly well with my weight loss goal, but I haven't been dieting. Diets don't work. Sure, they have short term results, but unless you think you will never eat a cupcake again, or you are willing to eat nothing but eggs for the rest of you life (I have a friend whose egg diet ruined eggs for her permanently), they don't work. For weight loss it comes down to a simple equation, calories in vs. calories out. I have been using the website loseit.com and have lost 7 pounds. I really like loseit, 2 of my friends, Cierra and Janey encouraged me to join, it is a free site, that helps you count calories. So I simply try to burn more than I am eating and try not to go over my budget.

I majored in Fitness & Nutrition in College, and one of my favorite classes was my Healthy Body Image class. I think everyone wants to be skinny, that is a given, but it is more than that, you need to be healthy and take care of your bodies by eating better and exercising. I have been working hard lately on improving what and how much I am eating. There were several helpful tips that I learned in that class like ordering a kids meal instead of a full meal and if you have to have sweets (I have a MAJOR sweet tooth!) try to choose lower calorie options, like licorice and Junior Mints. My teacher added the advice of eating your sweets earlier in the day, so you have more time to burn them off. She also suggested portioning them out to their serving size instead of sitting down with the bag/box. That last one really stuck with me and I now try to portion out what I buy from the store. This is what it looks like when I come home from grocery shopping.... The snack size bags are key, the smaller they are the less you put in them. I buy A LOT of snack bags. I come home, dump out the bag, and read what the serving size is. In the case of my dried fruit it is 1/3 cup. I then scoop a portion into the bag and that is it. The rule also is, ONE bag, you can't grab more than one for a snack!
Some of you may be thinking "UGH, that would take so much time, I just don't have the time to do that." I think of it a little differently though, I can either spend the time portioning out my food so I don't over eat, OR, I can spend the time on the treadmill. I really do enjoy exercise, but let's be honest, I would rather spend 45 minutes vs. an hour. I also use this trick to create my own 100 calorie packs, the ones in the store are WAY overpriced. It has worked well in my house, and I am feeling good about making healthier choice in other ways like hormone free milk & eggs, more organic foods, and less sugar. Same concept here, eating this way does cost a bit more, but I can pay more now, or with medical bills later in life.

Do you have any tricks to help you eat better or more healthy? I would love to hear them please share!

One Dollar Wednesday... cutlery trays

You know I love the little silver trays that are so prevalent at the Dollar Tree. I love them so much that I decided to do ANOTHER craft with them.

I started with 3 rectangular silver trays, some pretty scrapbook paper, and a slew of cutlery.



I sent them straight to The Spray Paint Place, for some quick coats of primer and paint.





I used my "paint on, rub off" method with the trays,



and then I used the same method on the cutlery... heads first,



and then tails.



I attached my scrapbook paper,to my trays, with a thin coat of mod podge.



Lastly, I glued my cutlery to my trays...



and now I have some fun decor for this little corner of my breakfast nook!