Category - Corners of My Home

Pinterest Win: Wrinkle Release

When my friend Tami moved away (going on 5 years now!), she left me with a bottle of wrinkle release.  Movers can get funny about what they’ll pack and what they won’t and I guess her movers wouldn’t pack it.  However, mine did and it came with us to Colorado.

I’d never used wrinkle release before, but I loved it!  Too many of my clothes don’t get taken out of the dryer soon enough and they end up a mess.  But then I ran out of wrinkle release and I couldn’t find it anywhere! Seriously, there was a run on it or something.

I found a simple recipe via Pinterest, tried it and it was a winner!  Here’s the link to the recipe:  Homemade Wrinkle Releaser.

I went to the dollar store and bought cheap fabric softener.  Double win!

Here’s one of my tops before:

Wrinkles2Same top, after:

No Wrinkles1No Wrinkles2It really is the same top, just in different lighting as the sun moved.  And it shifted slightly on the hanger when I turned it around to spray the back.

My only warning is this: Spray those wrinkles when you first hang up your clothes.  Don’t wait until you want to wear them or they won’t be dry enough and you’ll end up even more wrinkled.  And maybe cold.

PinWin WrinkleRelease

 

 

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Craft Room Progress

I’ve been working on my craft room for about a month now, off and on as time allows.  Here’s where I am right now. (The pictures are off my phone, sorry for the quality.)

First up, here we are looking in from the door.  It’s pink!  With a window! And carpet!

Craft Room Entrance

To the right of the door is my Wall of Storage.  The brown cubbies will be moved to another room and the beige containers will be replaced with pink ones.  I’m just waiting for them to go on sale again (probably next month).  Everything that is sitting out will be put into fabric bins, too.  This picture has the truest representation of the pink color of the room.

 

Storage wall

My craft table! With Ott light, phone, and the stool Boo assembled for me. Everything under the table is leaving, everything on the table is waiting to be put away.

Craft Table

These two black towers of drawers hold rubber stamps and accessories.  Don’t judge.  This is *after* the first purge when we moved here.

Stamp Bins

And the closet.  We removed the doors and a built-in shelf and stuck the bakers rack in there.  Every single thing that is on the floor in this picture is leaving!!

Craft Closet

I have an actual, functional craft room now!  It’s messy, yes, but I can use it.  I went in there just yesterday to cut paper with the guillotine paper cutter.  Just walked right in, didn’t have to step over anything, didn’t have to move anything out of the way.  Just cut the paper, put the scraps in the scrap bin and left.

It’s dreamy.

Next will be getting those new pink fabric bins, clearing out the rest of the things that don’t belong, and doing a little decorating.

If you promise not to laugh, you can see how it started off here: Craft Room Do Over.

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Craft Room Do Over

I was thrilled that we bought a house that would give me a craft room. I envisaged many days of crafting bliss in a neat and tidy room. All my supplies at my finger tips and a cat sleeping peacefully nearby.

Four and half years after moving in, the room looked like this.
CraftRoomBefore1

Don’t just stand there at the door! Come in, come in.  On your left…more junk!

CraftRoomBefore2

Don’t forget to look to your right and notice my nice work table.

CraftRoomBefore3

Behind you is the closet and don’t miss the lovely pile in front of the window.

CraftRoomBefore4 CraftRoomBefore5

Pretty horrid, isn’t it.

The room was never more than a glorified storage room and everyone just kept adding to it.

I was so over it. I actually hated it. So I decided to overhaul it.

Step one, empty the whole room. Everything but the bakers rack and one drawer unit were removed. Then we painted it. By “we”, I mostly mean the husband. And by paint, I mean pink! It is my signature color, according to Pumpkin Girl, so why not?

PinkCraftRoom

It’s super hard to photograph because of the way the light comes into the room, so take my word for it – it’s a very lovely shade of pink.

I am very much enjoying my pink craft room and ignoring the fact that the entire contents of the room still need to be dealt with.

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Pinterest Win: Carpet Cleaner

pinterestwinFour children and three cats – you can bet that my carpet gets spots and stains.  And I have to tell  you, nothing skeeves me out more than a dirty, spotted carpet. So I needed something that was both cheap and effective and would help me keep the carpet looking fresh.  I went looking for a homemade carpet cleaner and I found a recipe that includes things I usually have in the house.  It is supposed to go in your carpet cleaning machine and we happen to have a big ol’ Bissel.  Perfect.  Here’s the link to the recipe: Homemade Carpet Cleaner

This area of our carpet gets a lot of spots.  Being right between the sofa and the ottoman, Pipsqueak spills his juice here on a regular basis.  It doesn’t even matter what he spills, it ends up leaving a spot.  Look, I even used arrows so you won’t miss the horror.  (It’s actually really hard to photograph carpet spots, by the way.)

CarpetBefore

So rather than leaving the carpet looking horrid until we get a professional in, we tried the homemade carpet cleaner with the Bissel.

Here is the same spot after being treated.CarpetAfter

I’d say it works well, don’t you?  Another one for the Pinterest Win file!

CarpetCompare

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Pinterest Win: Shower Grout

I love me some Pinterest! Have you heard of the blogs that feature Pinterest fails?  They are kind of funny, but sometimes it seems like the person was deliberately trying to fail. I have to admit, there are a number of pins that I’ve seen that make me think, “Yeah, right.  There is no way I’m going to pull off those projects.” But I’ve actually tried some of the other ideas I’ve found. So I thought I’d start a series of posts highlighting my Pinterest Wins.

To start us off  is the idea to use cotton coil (found in beauty supply stores) and bleach to clean shower grout. The original idea can be found here: Getting Mold Out of the Shower.  I rarely use bleach at all – it stinks and it can ruin anything it touches.  But showers sometimes need that level of help.  Like mine…grout beforeSo I did pretty much what the original link said: line your icky shower grout with cotton coil and gently pour bleach over the cotton coil.  Here’s a hint from me- get a cheap squeeze bottle to help control where the bleach goes.  Use a Q-tip to push the cotton right up against the grout.  Wait a while, check the progress, remove when done.  That’s it!  It works because the cotton coil keeps the bleach in constant contact with the grout, instead of it running down the drain.

grout after

What do you think? Easy and cheap, that makes it a Win!

I ended up getting cotton coil through Amazon.com as an add-on item after I’d forgotten for the bazillionth time to stop by Sally’s Beauty Supply while I was at Target (they are in the same parking lot).Grout Collage1

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Efficient Summer

Heat Miser with MinionsIt’s summer.  Blech.  I’ve said it many times before, but I am not a summer person.  Too hot, too sweaty, not enough air conditioning.  Shorts make my knees look chubby.  It’s like I’ve got Heat Miser and his minions dancing around my house. And apparently, my state now has a tendency to burst into flames.

But I will make the best of it.  I have decided to be Efficient this summer!  I am going to Get Things Done!  I have…A Plan, and it’s a good one.

Mainly it is sitting on the back deck, drinking iced tea and hanging out on Facebook.

Ok, not really.  Summer of Sloth II is Boo’s plan, which I delight in thwarting daily. My Efficient Summer Plan involves having one focus area for each week of summer.  Like so…

Week 1. Basement, Round 1
Week 2.Work on the blog (have you noticed?), work on projects with Bip
Week 3 Refine the housekeeping schedule, such as chore assignments. Pumpkin Girl projects
Week 4 Basement, Round 2, Work on projects with Bip
Week 5. Home Ec with the kids
Week 7. Prep for coming school year, Pumpkin Girl Projects, prep for upcoming cruise
Week 6.  Craft Room, Projects with Bip
Week 8.  Home Ec with Kids.

I’m on week 3 now.  I’m sure my minions are extra thrilled with this one!  Too bad, we wouldn’t want them living the Life of Riley now, would we?  Or having me talk to the walls?

So basically, I’m getting to all the need-tos and should-haves that have been building up, along with tackling some projects that I’ve promised to do with or for Pumpkin Girl and Bip.  Also, they decided they wanted to learn to cook and bake.  Or I decided, I can’t remember which.  And that pretty much takes up the summer.  I might have one more week in there, depending on when Pumpkin’s dance studio starts their Fall schedule.

How about you?  Anything as thrilling as I have planned?

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Forty Days, Forty Projects

You’ve probably heard of the popular 40 Bags in 40 Days project. The point is to collect 40 bags of junk, clutter and unneeded things in your house and get rid of them, all in a 40 day time span. I see it pop up around Lent, being 40 days long and all. But trying to fill one bag full of stuff a day? That’s a huge effort and I’ve got way to much on my plate right now to have that kind of time.

Then my friend Sandy at Falling Like Rain shared something she found on Pinterest. Forty Days of Organization is the plan but this time it is 40 projects around your house to help you be better organized. Now *that* I can do!

I brainstormed my list, mentally going through each room of my house. I only came up with 20 things at first, but I’ve added to it since then. Everything on my list is something I can finish in an hour or less.

40DaysOrganization

I didn’t really get going on my list until Presidents Day. Other commitments kept us from going anywhere that day, so I used the day off to knock out several projects.

I’ve got to tell you, I love me some lists!  I like getting all those thoughts out of my head and onto paper. I really like crossing things off because that means that Things are Getting Done.  I’m looking forward to arriving at Easter with 40 organizing projects crossed off my list!

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Dining Room Chair Makeover

I’m so excited about my latest project!

About 14 years ago, Phil’s mom gifted us with her dining room set. The whole thing was in pretty bad shape, but we needed it, so we used it. Over the years we’ve learned that it is an antique, and 80 years old, at the very least. We had all the pieces restored when we stopped moving around the country and it is looking really nice.

Except the seats. Let me show you…

Not too bad, eh? Take a closer look.

They’ve been an embarrassment to me every time we have people over. We figure the seat covers are about 30 years old.

Well, my friend Niki is visiting and we took the time over the weekend to finally do something about the chairs. We had Phil removing the seat pads, 4 kids and I removing the nasty fabric and Niki cutting and stapling on the new fabric. It was pretty straight forward work, just time consuming. In about 2 hours we replaced all 6 seat covers. Take a look at them now.

Oh yeah!

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Getting Cleaned Up

I slept through most of 2010. My pregnancy wiped me out and my house suffered for it. I actually started regretting the choice of home that we bought. I thought it was too small, which if you’ve seen my house in real life, you know is ridiculous. Our house isn’t huge, but it fits us all nicely with more than enough room to spare. But I wasn’t happy anymore. No need to smack me though, because I’m over it.

Turns out, with me sleeping most of the time and trying to school the children the rest of it, our home sweet home turned into a lovely depot of clutter. It wasn’t the house that I didn’t like – it was the way the house looked.

So now Pipsqueak is here and I’m much more awake, I desperately want to reclaim the home I love. And since January is a time for fresh starts, I’m not the only one wanting to get cleaned up.

Clean Mama has declared that January is Cleaning Month. She is going to get her house cleaned in 15 minutes a day for 5 days a week and she’d like us -the general internet public- to join her. Go to the link above and leave her a comment that you’re joining her and you’ll be entered to win a $50 gift certificate for Clean Mama printables. You don’t need a blog to participate.

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Overdue Bookshelf

So last Friday when I was feeling mostly better after the stomach virus, and I’d eaten a couple of meals, I had this burst of energy. So big that it caused me to do housework.  I tackled this bookshelf:

Hey, I didn’t say it was a huge burst of energy.  And remember, I hadn’t eaten anything in like 6 days and was pretty worn out and weak. The bookshelf was all I could handle.

I was tired of looking at it all the time.  We’ve lived in this house for 2 years and this shelf has been the collecting spot for all sorts of things since we moved in.  It doesn’t have books because it is supposed to be where my Swarovski crystal collection is displayed.  But as that hasn’t happened in 2 years and we’re moving in 5 months, it’s not going to happen at all.

I took everything off the shelf, dusted it and found a new home for most of the stuff.  Then, because I’m highly distractable when it comes to housework, I went through all the other books in the house and picked out ones to give away.  I also rounded up some books for the newly cleaned off shelf.

Which is when I noticed our Curious George books.  My uncle Anthony gave Boo two Curious George anthologies for his first and second birthdays and he drew a cute little George cartoon of his own in the front covers.  We loved those books so much that the covers fell off!  I couldn’t replace them because we’d lose the little cartoons.  So they sat safely on the shelf for a while.

But since I was all energetic, I got out the book repair tape I bought a couple of months ago and fixed them.

And while I was culling another bookshelf, I found the original paper covers that I’d stashed behind some books for safe keeping. I covered them with clear library covers and now look!

All better and ready to enjoy again.

I did eventually get back to the original bookshelf.  See…

Just one more Corner of My Home that looks a little nicer.

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