Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Cookie Cutter Soaps

Here's another quick, reeeeeally inexpensive little crafty thing I did the other day....cookie cutter soaps!
This would be fun to get the kids involved in too.


What I started with was: Three bars of Palmolive soap from the dollar store (all three were only a dollar!!), and a hand grater...also from the dollar store.

I laid down a sheet of waxed paper on my counter, and grated the soap. I used the smaller side for a finer grate, and I also did some on the larger side for a coarser grate.
The coarser grate gave a little more textures to the finished soaps.



Once I had all the soap grated, I lifted up the edges of the waxed paper, and poured the soap into a bowl.
Then I added just a little sprinkling of water, just enough to make the soap flakes stick together, but not enough to get it mushy.

I dug through my plastic cookie cutters, and found the smaller ones that I had.

Here's where the kids can start getting involved.
I think kids would like this because it's messy play, but it's SOAP, so it's clean.

On the same sheet of waxed paper I put down a cookie cutter, then took little handfuls of the soap flakes, and started packing them into the cookie cutter, pressing down firmly so that the flakes would stick together.
When I had the cookie cutter full, I slowly pushed the soap 'bar' out of the cutter.

If you wanted, you could even just shape them into balls.

When all of the soaps were made, I left them on my counter on a plate for about a day for them to completely harden before they were used.

Out of the 3 bars of soap, I got 14 little shaped soaps.
I like to have little bars of soap next to the bathroom sink instead of the huge bath sized bars, or they can be just used as decorative by placing them on a cute plate or in a dish.





These would be cute to make as a gift too, or to put in a bath-themed gift basket.



Total cost for this craft: $2.00.

This also smelled WONDERFUL as I was making them.
My grandma must have used this soap, because as soon as I smelled it, I thought of her.

Have you ever smelled something and it made you think of someone, or brought back a memory?

Have a wonderful day!

Linking to these parties:
Wednesday
Thursday



Pin It

What I Won

This morning I wanted to sit down and show off the sweetest thing, and thank a couple people.

A little while back I entered a giveaway sponsored by Lauryn from love notes by lauryn.
The winning prize was a choice of illustrated prints by Elissa from her Etsy shop Elissa Hudson Illustration.

Can you guess who the lucky winner was?
Yup...it was ME!!

*happy dance*
*twirling around the room*
*clapping of hands*

It was so hard to choose just one thing from Elissa's shop, everything is SO adorable, but I decided on this print:
Our Grass Is The Greenest illustrated Art Print
I love the colors, the style, the lettering...and how cute are the little snails???
I wanted to take a photo of the actual print she sent, but my camera batteries are dead...AGAIN, and it's pouring rain and I'm not leaving the house today. :p

Now I have to decide how I am going to frame it.
And which wall in my bedroom I'm going to hang it on.
When I get it framed and hung, I will post again to show everyone how it looks.

Thank you so much Lauryn, for sponsoring the giveaway....and to Elissa, for allowing me to be the proud owner of this darling print.
You both made my day a little brighter!!
:)



Pin It

Monday, April 16, 2012

Detailed Housecleaning Week 4 ~ The Dining Room


 

I'm so pleased with the positive feedback that my house cleaning schedule has received so far.
This week we will be cleaning the dining room.

This is a schedule that I've been devising and tweaking for a while now until it was something that was easy for me to work with, and to stick with...and I think I have it just about right.

First of all...why do I need a list? I am a terrible procrastinator, and will put things off and put things off until they are just not done at all.
What works to motivate me and get me going are lists. I make lists for all kinds of things, but it wasn't until I put together this housecleaning list that I felt I really had a handle on my home and it's organization.

My inspiration for my housecleaning comes from the Flylady website. I followed it for a while, and while some of it worked for me...some of it just didn't. So I took what I learned from it, and tweaked it to fit into my life.

Now before we start, I will explain the basics of it. I have 5 areas/rooms in my home: our main bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, the dining area, and the living room (I don't clean the kid's rooms...they are old enough and responsible for their own spaces)....and each week I work on a different room and do a detailed cleaning which I divide up all through the week. Then there are certain chores that are done every day of the week, and finally there are certain chores that I do once a week on a particular day.

How did I come up with the chores for the detailed cleaning? I stood in each room of my house and asked myself, "If I were to do a thorough cleaning in this room right now, what all would I need to do?" I then sat down, wrote out each chore that would need to be done, then divided the chores throughout the week.

I know...it sounds confusing, but I will list each thing I do every day. It will also look like a LOT of work..but once you get into the routine, it really only takes no more than about an hour.

I go into a little more detail about how to get into this routine and how certain things are done here:

Just a couple other things before we start.

HOT SPOT is an area in a room that is the most cluttered. I always do the visible hot spots first, like tabletops...and if there isn't any visible clutter, I will work on a hidden hot spot, like a drawer or cabinet. So when it's time to clean a hot spot for 5 minutes...I look around, and just straighten the messiest spot in a room.

DECLUTTERING is done each day in a different area of the house. For this, I set a time for 15 minutes, and straighten a room. Get stuff out of there that doesn't belong, throw out garbage, put things where they go. 

CHORES THAT ARE DONE EVERY DAY:
  • Dishes (Load dishwasher and run it before bed, empty it in the morning.)
  • Fill pet dishes/ check and clean cat litter
  • Wash, dry and put away one load of laundry
  • Wipe bathroom (spray sink, faucet and toilet...wipe clean (disinfecting wipes work great too). Swish inside toilet with toilet brush)
  • Vacuum (don't move furniture, just do around everything. I have 2 cats, a dog, a 12 and 17 year old, a 6 month old and a husband....I HAVE to vacuum every day haha!)
  • Straighten surfaces (before bed I make sure the kitchen table, the kitchen counter and living room coffee and end tables are clutter free)
WEEKLY CHORES:
  • Monday: Change and/or wash bedding
  • Tuesday: Dust surfaces (I feather dust everything in the whole house, shelves, knick knacks, lampshades, etc. When I think it needs it, or I have time...I use furniture polish and do tabletops, etc.)
  • Wednesday: Empty all garbage (Bathroom and bedroom cans are emptied, kitchen garbage goes out if full....anything else that has been set aside that needs to go out....gets put in garbage cans in the garage.
  • Thursday: Clean mirrors and glass (Spray and wipe all mirrors, spot clean the inside of each window in the house)
  • Friday: Purge mail and magazines (go through all the mail is laying around, throw out what is junk. Go through magazines and newspapers and throw out what has been read....straighten what you are keeping)

Oh my....ok....is anyone still with me??? Haha! I PROMISE....this is MUCH easier than it looks.

 

To put it simply....the hot spots, decluttering, daily and weekly cleaning are ongoing upkeep, while you are concentrating on doing a thorough cleaning during the week in a particular room.
Easy peasy! ;p


This week....I am cleaning in the DINING ROOM.


Ready? Here we go!

 

MONDAY
  • Change/wash bedding
  • Clean dining room light fixtures (Either dust them, or use a spray cleaner...depending on how dirty they are)
  • Straighten desk drawers (Or if you have shelves, or a buffet, etc, clean that. Take everything out, throw out what you don't love or don't use. Wipe inside drawers or shelves, put everything back, organizing things as you go.)
  • Declutter living room for 15 minutes
  • Wash/put away dishes
  • Fill pet dishes/clean litter
  • Clean hot spots for 5 minutes each: Bedroom & kitchen
  • Wash, dry and put away a load of laundry
  • Straighten surfaces (before bed)
  • Vacuum all rooms
  • Wash dining room windows


TUESDAY
  • Clean around pet dishes (I empty and wash the food and water bowls, and vacuum or wipe under them with a damp rag and some cleaner. If you use a mat under the dishes, wipe that clean or wash it in the sink.)
  • Declutter bedroom for 15 minutes
  • Wash/put away dishes
  • Dust all surfaces in house
  • Fill pet dishes/clean litter
  • Clean hot spots for 5 minutes each: Kitchen & bathroom
  • Wash, dry and put away a load of laundry
  • Straighten surfaces (before bed)
  • Wipe bathroom
  • Vacuum all rooms
  • Wash dining room curtains (I also dust mini blinds)


WEDNESDAY
  • Clean all dining room knick knacks (I dust what can't be wiped off, for all other things I either use a furniture polish or glass cleaner and spray and wipe everything. This is for wall decor, picture frames, any other misc items in the room.)
  • Declutter kitchen for 15 minutes
  • Wash/put away dishes
  • Empty all garbage and put out
  • Fill pet dishes/ clean litter
  • Clean hot spots for 5 minutes each: Bathroom and living room
  • Wash, dry and put away a load of laundry
  • Sweep and mop kitchen and bathroom floors
  • Straighten surfaces (before bed)
  • Wipe bathroom
  • Vacuum all rooms
  • Wipe floor under dining table (I have tile, so I move all my chairs and either mop under the table, or get on my hands and knees and spray and wipe it. If you have carpeting, move the chairs and do a detailed vacuuming. At this time I also clean along the walls in the dining area and in the corners.)


THURSDAY
  • Clean dining table (I take everything off, spray furniture polish and wipe, then clean any decorative items and put them back. If you use a tablecloth or placemats, those can be thrown in the washer, or even just hung outside to air out if they don't need a good cleaning. I give my chairs a spray and a wipe also.)
  • Clean all mirrors in the house, spot clean insides of all windows in the house
  • Declutter bathroom for 15 minutes
  • Wash/put away dishes
  • Fill pet dishes/ clean litter
  • Clean hot spots for 5 minutes each: Living room and bedroom
  • Wash, dry and put away a load of laundry
  • Straighten surfaces (before bed)
  • Wipe bathroom
  • Vacuum all rooms
  •  Organize dining room corner (I have a corner that I keep an extra chair in, and junk collects there. I organize it and get rid of things that don't belong there. Just pick an area in you room that hasn't been cleaned yet, and clean/organize that.)


FRIDAY
  • Clean dining room bench (I have a bench that opens for storage. I sometimes hid junk in there until I find a place for it. I empty that out and organize what stays in there (extra bedding, board games, etc). Then I vacuum the cushion and fluff pillows. If you don't have this sort of area, just pick another area that you haven't cleaned yet this week.)
  • Straighten up in the laundry area/room. Take out garbage, organize shelves and cabinets, wipe down washer and dryer.
  • Wash/put away dishes
  • Fill pet dishes/clean letter
  • Clean hot spots for 5 minutes each: Kitchen and bathroom
  • Wash, dry and put away a load of laundry
  • Purge mail and magazines (throw out junk, organize what you are keeping)
  • Straighten surfaces (before bed)
  • Wipe bathroom
  • Vacuum all rooms


SATURDAY & SUNDAY
  • Wash/put away dishes
  • Fill pet dishes/check litter
  • Wash, dry and put away a load of laundry
  • Straighten surfaces (before bed)
  • Wipe bathroom
  • Vacuum
Every Monday I print out my weekly list, and I mark off each chore as I do it.

At first, if your house was as cluttered and disorganized as mine....this will take you a while to get through, but if you keep at it, eventually you will be able to get all of your cleaning done in an hour or so a day. You will start to notice a difference in your house, and you won't panic when you hear someone knock on the door because your home will be presentable.


If you follow this, you will of course have to tweak it to what will work for you. You will have to add chores, and omit chores, but this gives you a basic idea of how I keep my home clean and organized.

IMPORTANT NOTE: After hiding my cleaning list from The Kids and The Husband for a long time because I was embarrassed for them to know I needed a list to clean the house.....I started leaving it on the counter so that it was easier to see what needed to get done...The Kids started looking at it each day, and asking to HELP! The Husband has not yet caught on though, ha ha! 

 

Please leave a comment if you have any questions.

For the next 4 weeks, I will detail a different room, so if you want to continue to read further installments of my housecleaning schedule, please make sure you follow me by one of the options in my sidebar.



Next week we will clean.....The kitchen.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Linking up to these parties:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
{Primp} ~ A Little Tipsy ~ Blue Cricket Design ~ Cheap Crafty Mama ~ Fabric Bows and More ~ Fireflies and Jellybeans ~ Gingersnap Crafts ~ Handy Man, Crafty Woman ~ Happy Hour Projects ~ Home Happy Home ~ I Gotta Create ~ Ivy and Elephants ~ Lil' Luna ~ My Girlish Whims ~ Night Owl Crafting ~ Oopsey Daisy ~ Polka Dots On Parade ~ Restore Interiors ~ Savvy Southern Style ~ seven thirty three ~ Sew Much Ado ~ Someday Crafts ~ Southern Lovely ~ Sugar and Dots ~ Tea Rose Room ~ The NY Melrose Family ~ The Sasse Life ~ The Trendy Treehouse ~ Vintage Gwen

Thursday
{aka} design ~ A Glimpse Inside ~ Bear Rabbit Bear ~ Brambleberry Cottage ~ Delightful Order ~ Embracing Change ~ House of Hepworths ~ Just Winging It ~ live laugh rowe ~ Momnivore's Dilemma ~ My Repurposed Life ~ No Minimalist Here ~ RadCrafter ~ Saved by Suzy ~ School House Scraps ~ Somewhat Simple ~ The 36th Avenue ~ The CSI Project ~ Thrifty 101


Pin It

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Vanilla ~ Rebottled

My husband Ray has a friend that lives in Texas, and when he comes up to Michigan in the summers, he always brings me a huge bottle of La Vencedora Mexican Pure Vanilla. 



This is the BEST vanilla. I never buy it in the grocery store anymore, 1. because this bottle is so big, almost 32 ounces, I never run out..and 2.  because the tiny bottles of real vanilla in the store are so darn expensive. Forget even buying imitation vanilla...it's not going to happen.

But the absolute BEST thing about this vanilla....is the price. I would just always give my husband's friend $10.00, and I thought he was just giving me a good deal. But no. I googled it, and found that it can be purchased HERE and HERE....for not much more than I was paying our friend.

So he brings me these bottles, and I use it for baking...I add a little to pancake batter when I make pancakes, I add some to my coffee sometimes, and at night I will warm up some milk and add a few drops to a mug of milk...mmm.

But the bottle is like a bottomless pit...no matter how much I use, it seems like it never runs dry, haha! Also....it's hard to pour when you just need a drop or two. It's the size of a big fat bottle of wine.

Ok....now to get to the actual reason for this post.

So the other day I decided that I needed to put it into something smaller.
I happened to use the last drop of soy sauce, and I washed out the bottle, soaked the label off and let it dry.
But I didn't just want a plain old bottle of vanilla in my cabinet.
So I went to The Graphics Fairy's blog, knowing that there are a vast array of all different sorts of vintage graphics, labels and whatnot available there.
I did a search for 'vanilla'...and was so excited to find this:

Oh my. How perfect.
I printed it out and it fit perfectly on the bottle.

As you can see it's a much smaller, more manageable size bottle...and so much nicer looking.


So much nicer, in fact....that I don't want to hide it away in the cabinet.
I'm going to leave it out on my shelf for all to see. :)


My entry into Craft and Tell @ Cherished Bliss is sponsored by Appliances Online and the Bosch Washing Machines

My entry into Fridays Unfolded sponsored 
by Appliances Online and Bosch Washing Machines


Thanks for stopping by....I hope you all have a wonderful day.

And don't forget to go and visit The Graphics Fairy!




Linking to these parties:
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday






Pin It

Monday, April 9, 2012

Upcycled Spice Rack into Vases

Happy Monday everyone!

Today I'm going to show you how I repurposed a thrifted spice rack into a cute set of vases.
This was a very simple little project, but I think it turned out really cute.

While I was at Goodwill the other day, I spotted this little spice rack for $1.99. 

This was a 'new' set...and by new I mean that each of the spice jars still had plastic around the cork stoppers, so it was used as a decorative piece by it's previous owner.
BUT....after getting it home and opening each jar...well when I went to dump out the spices, they were all stuck inside the jars, and I had to take a bamboo skewer and poke around inside of them to loosen everything enough for it to come out. The parsley had actually turned a bright yellow it was so old. Ew..haha!

Anyway, after I got all of the spices out, I soaked the bottles in hot soapy water. I used an old toothbrush to clean the insides. The labels and glue, after soaking, slide right off which was nice, so I didn't have to pick at everything to get it to come off.


The rack itself is metal, and is heavy and sturdy....but it was a sort of brownish/gray color that I didn't like, and had some sort of metallic paint on the leaves.
I took it into the garage and sprayed it with a coat of my matte black spray paint, which made it look cleaner and much better.


Now for the cork stoppers. Each stopper was different, depicting what was in each jar. I didn't want to refill it with the same kind of spices, and considered just painting all of the stoppers one color, but that wouldn't have looked right. Also, the one that was used for the garlic smelled SO strong I don't think I would have ever gotten the odor out. 



So I put the empty jars in the rack and left it out on my counter for a few days until I decided what I wanted to do with it.



Then I was reading some blogs that I follow one day, and I saw this awesome idea on My Simple Country Life's blog:
Upcycled Wood Frame Wall Flower Vase at My Simple Country Life

Then it hit me....I don't have to use my jars for spices...I can use them as vases! I've seen people use all shapes and sizes of bottles and jars as vases, and really love how they look.

I immediately thought that one single flower in each one would look great, but since our weather has not yet warmed up...there aren't any flowers in sight. So what I did was just clip little sprigs of some artificial things that I had in other vases and things. I do like the green, but these will be nice when I want to add a pop of color to my kitchen and can add some brightly colored flowers.

I also considered adding some decoupage labels on the bottles, possible some vintage French perfume labels or something, but I do like just them clear as well. 

So here is my finished project. Total cost - $1.99
And another accent piece to use once I finish my kitchen painting project.



I just love this!
Here is a before and after shot....what a difference a little paint and cleaning up can make!

Thank you all for stopping by to take a look at what I've been up to.
Please feel free to follow me so you can come back again to see what other junk I've been up to. ;)
Also, I love to hear from you, so please lave a comment and let me know what you think!

Have a wonderful day!  :)

This post was featured here:
Reduce, Reuse, UPcycle

My entry into Fridays Unfolded sponsored 
by Appliances Online and Bosch Washing Machines



Linking to these parties:
Monday
A Diamond in the Stuff ~ Between Naps on the Porch ~ Boogieboard Cottage ~ Brassy Apple ~ Cherished Handmade Treasures ~ C.R.A.F.T. ~ CraftOManiac ~ DIY Home Sweet Home ~ Home Savvy A to Z ~ Keeping It Simple ~ Lines Across My Face ~ Making The World Cuter ~ Our Delightful Home ~ Polly Want a Crafter Sarahndipities ~ Serendipity and Spice ~ Sew Can Do ~ Singing Three Little Birds ~ Skip To My Lou ~ Sumo's Sweet Stuff ~ The Girl Creative ~ The Southern Institute
Tuesday
A Bowl Full of Lemons ~ Adventures of a DIY Mom ~ At Home With K ~ Chef in Training ~ Cherished Bliss ~ Coastal Charm ~ Crafty Confessions ~ Debbie Does Creations ~ DIY By Design ~ Elizabeth & Co. ~ Funky Polkadot Giraffe ~ Home Stories A to Z ~ Homework ~ House of Grace ~ How To Nest For Less ~ Kammy's Korner ~ Mommy By Day Crafter By Night ~ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia ~ Not Just a Housewife ~ Nothing But Country ~ Sassy Sites! ~ Sugar Bee Crafts ~ Sweet Little Gals ~ The Blackberry Vine ~ The Lettered Cottage ~ The Project Queen ~ The REAL Housewives of Riverton ~ Tip Junkie ~ Today's Creative Blog ~ Vintage Wanna Bee
Wednesday
{Primp} ~ A Little Tipsy ~ Blue Cricket Design ~ Cheap Crafty Mama ~ Fabric Bows and More ~ Fireflies and Jellybeans ~ Gingersnap Crafts ~ Handy Man, Crafty Woman ~ Happy Hour Projects ~ Home Happy Home ~ I Gotta Create ~ Ivy and Elephants ~ Lil' Luna ~ My Girlish Whims ~ Night Owl Crafting ~ Oopsey Daisy ~ Polka Dots On Parade ~ Restore Interiors ~ Savvy Southern Style ~ seven thirty three ~ Sew Much Ado ~ Someday Crafts ~ Southern Lovely ~ Sugar and Dots ~ Tea Rose Room ~ The NY Melrose Family ~ The Sasse Life ~ The Trendy Treehouse ~ Vintage Gwen
Thursday
{aka} design ~ A Glimpse Inside ~ Bear Rabbit Bear ~ Brambleberry Cottage ~ Delightful Order ~ House of Hepworths ~ Just Winging It ~ live laugh rowe ~ Momnivore's Dilemma ~ My Repurposed Life ~ No Minimalist Here ~ RadCrafter ~ Saved by Suzy ~ School House Scraps ~ Somewhat Simple ~ The 36th Avenue ~ The CSI Project ~ Thrifty 101
Friday
2805 ~ 504 Main ~ Addicted 2 Decorating ~ At The Picket Fence ~ Blissful and Domestic ~ Chic On a Shoestring Decorating ~ Delicate Construction ~ Family Ever After ~ Finding My Way in Texas ~ Fingerprints On The Fridge ~ Five Days 5 Ways ~ French Country Cottage ~ Happy-Go-Lucky ~ Happy Hour Projects ~ Here Comes The Sun ~ Just A Girl ~ Kojo Designs ~ little becky homecky ~ love notes by lauryn ~ Momma's Kinds Crafty ~ Nap Time Crafters ~ One Artsy MamaRemodelaholic ~ Sassy Sites ~ See Vanessa Craft ~ Serenity Now ~ Stuff and Nonsense ~ The Charm of Home ~ The Creative Paige ~ The Grant Life ~ The Rooster and the Hen ~ The Shabby Nest ~ Thirty Handmade Days ~ Tidy Mom ~ Whipperberry
Saturday
Be Different Act Normal ~ Funky Junk Interiors ~ Lolly Jane Boutique ~ Lovely Crafty Home ~ Positively Splendid ~ Six Sisters' Stuff ~ Young and Crafty
Sunday
Ask Anna ~ DIY Showoff Flamingo Toes ~ Homemaker On A Dime ~ I Heart Nap Time ~ It's Overflowing ~ It's So Very Cheri ~ My 1929 Charmer ~ Nifty Thrifty Things ~ Petite Hermine ~ Randee's Organized Chaos ~ Sew Chatty ~ Sew Many Ways ~ Under The Table and Dreaming



Pin It