The post in which I profess my love of Vinegar...

Here's how it happened. Traveler, my dear sweet goofy face making boy, will not let me put him down during the day. So, I wear him in a sling. And carry him on my hip. But my little stowaway makes cleaning the house a bit complicated.

My biggest concern was the fumes. Nearly every product I used caused these awful caustic fumes and I refused to use them with Trav (or the girls) around. And I wanted to buy Shaklee, but I am too stinking impatient to order something and wait to get it. So after a Twitter poll the other day my Twitter/Blog friend Mama Hall recommended Vinegar. Which immediately intrigued me. So I did some research and it turns out (though I may be the only person who didn't already know this) that Vinegar is a great cleaning product. And cheap.

The next thing I knew I was in the kitchen concocting cleaning solutions to use around the house. And after having used them for the last couple weeks I must say, they are AWESOME! And totally cute in their little mason jars and pretty spray bottles. Very charming. Maybe even a bit Little House on the Prairie.

So, I thought I'd share my recipes (I came up with these spending two days searching on the internet so I don't really have a source to credit. But, in the interest of full disclosure, just know they aren't my invention.) and you can use them or Google others or recommend some to me that you've used.

All Purpose Cleaner:

Spray Bottle
1 part Vinegar
1 part Water

This All-Purpose Cleaner is awesome. I used it to clean my counters and refrigerator one minute and then turned around and used it on Traveler's exersaucer the next. I didn't have to worry about any harmful residue or fumes. Later, I was able to spray it on the girls wet hair to help remove the chlorine residue from swimming before washing it. It's truly multipurpose!

Disinfectant:

Spray Bottle
1/2 C Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Tea Tree Oil
1/4 C Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Seventh Generation Unscented detergent
10 drops Sweet Orange essential oil
fill remainder of bottle with water

Mix the ingredients together (don't forget Vinegar + Baking Soda makes fizzy foam so be careful when mixing!) and shake bottle well. Use anywhere you need to clean and disinfect. It works great at cleaning shower stalls and bathroom areas.

Abrasive Scrub:

Medium sized Mason Jar
1/4 Cup Baking Soda
Seventh Generation Unscented detergent

Put the Baking Soda in a bowl and add the detergent until the mixture has the consistency of cake frosting. Then put in a mason jar and seal. You can add a few drops of Olive Oil to keep the mixture moist. Use for cleaning the oven, bathtubs, or anywhere you need a scrub.

Swiffer Hack:

I added a mixture of 1/3 C Vinegar and 2/3 C Water (You can use 2/3 C Vinegar and 1/3 C Olive Oil for more of a polish) and a few drops of Sweet Orange essential oil to my Swiffer WetJet. Here's how.

Completely use up all of the Swiffer WetJet Cleaning solution. Make small hole in the top of the container. Using a very small funnel (or I use a turkey injector without the needle) add the solution to the bottle. Then apply a small piece of duct tape over the top to keep it sealed. That way you can keep the convenience of the WetJet but have a healthier & less expensive cleaning solution to use with it!

Thanks again to Mama Hall for opening my eyes to a new cleaning product! 

So there you have it! My new obsession. Got any recipes for cleaning products you've used in your house? Feel free to leave them or links to them in the comments!

The Big Switch, Continued

I mentioned a while back that we were switching out Family Room and Dining Room. And, in the process, we decided to change our dining room decor up a bit. We didn't really have much of a decorating scheme in the Dining Room before. It was more of a combination of funky pieces we'd found at antique stores and junk shops. Have I mentioned my love of all things funky, cheesy, and junky? That may be it's own separate post...

Anyway, when we switched things out, we ended up working my love of religious art into the room and used it throughout the room. We're still in the process of collecting enough pieces to give the room the right flavor (if you've ever been to the Pope Room at Buca Di Beppo you've seen where we're going with this) and it might take a while to get it complete. But, in the meantime, check out my favorite part of the room.

My Dining Room mantle:

Before
(when it was actually a Living Room mantle)
Not the best before picture, I'll admit. But, you get the idea.

After

I am pretty excited about the way it turned out. The candles are the $1 candles from Kroger and when lit they smell absolutely heavenly (no pun intended, I swear!).

So, there you have it. My Tuesday Tackle. Go see what other folks are tackling out there over at 5 Minutes for Mom!

And we have a nursery...

I've blogged before about the fact that it was taken me WAY longer to finish this little one's nursery than either of my girls. Partially because things are crazy around here with a pre-schooler and a kindergartener and partially because the boy thing was really stumping me.

But, we finally picked a "theme" and are getting the nursery almost finished. It isn't quite complete and we've still got to add some artwork that Thomas is designing this week, but it has come a LONG way!

Keeping in mind it's still a work in progress, I wanted to share what "we" (read: Thomas) accomplished with painting. Check out the before and after pics:

Before - Kai and Ivy's bedroom

After - T's almost finished nursery!

So, that was my tackle this week. Go check out what other people are tackling for Tackle it Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Escape from the 1960's

This weekend was such a whirlwind. We're getting ready for a big Thanksgiving practice party (more on that later) and parties like that always remind me of everything that needs to be done in our house. Couple that with a serious case of preggo nesting and we've been quite the productive family the last couple weeks.

And my favorite thing is doing make-overs on a budget because it forces some serious creativity.

This last weekend we made over our terrible straight from the 1960's bathroom. The counters were original to the house (built in '67) and most of the fixtures were from that era as well. I couldn't handle it one more second (there's that preggo nesting coming into play) and we couldn't afford to overhaul the bathroom completely either.

Here's our before:

Sorry for the terrible picture. It's one we had left over from the previous owner's real estate info. Just in case you thought that clock was my idea, it wasn't. And it didn't stay in the bathroom. Who needs a clock in the bathroom anyways? That seems like a lot of pressure to get things done quickly...

Anyways, it's a little difficult to get a good pic of the interior because of a funky angle. But, you get the idea. Boring. Even a little ugly. And, unfortunately, the counter top isn't nearly as hideous in this pic as it is in person. But, with a new coat of paint, some inexpensive curtains & fixtures from Ikea, we turned that into this:


We hung the shower curtains from the highest point on the wall in an attempt to make the room seem taller and added the pop of orange on the curtain sash and a small medicine cabinet to make things a little more interesting in there.

But, my favorite part is the new finish on the bathroom cabinet. Did you realize you can paint your laminate countertops? It's true. You can put a new finish on almost anything with the right process. For countertops, all you need is a quick sanding with some rough grit sand paper, a couple (or 3) coats of paint, and a thick coat of polyurethane and voila a new counter top without all the bad fake marbling that came with a 1960's counter top. I LOVE the way it turned out:

Gone, Baby, Gone

Okay, I swear the Loving family is not as granola and green as we might sound. Not that there is anything wrong with being granola or green, but I just don't want to sound like I think I'm doing anything huge for the environment when, in fact, I don't deserve that much credit.

Anyways, that said, we made the decision to ditch my favorite kitchen appliance this weekend. It's taken me a few months to finally do it and I'm a little scared to see whether we can make it without it. But, folks, we did it. We axed the microwave.

To be honest, it always kind of creeped me out. My relationship with the microwave was always love/hate. I love the convenience. I hate the idea that I am doing some horrible damage to my family's health by microwaving every thing they eat.

And, in the end, it was some ridiculously funky smell inside that finally pushed me over the edge. I suspect I microwaved one too many bowls of spaghetti-o's and that's what accounts for the smell. Though, with my kids, there could be a million reasons for a mysterious smell to appear in my microwave.

Either way, it's gone. Well, gone to the basement (just in case I change my mind). And other than a meat thawing conundrum we had this weekend, we haven't missed it all that much.

Did you know you can heat spaghetti-o's on the stove? Amazing!

So, how about you guys? Anyone get rid of a modern household convenience that they discovered they didn't need so much after all?

Good-bye Friend...

We finally sold our Nissan Xterra tonight. It was yet another thing we sold on Craigslist and I am very thankful to have finally done it.

But, it was bittersweet since it was the very first car Thomas and I bought as a married couple. It was actually doubly important to me 'cause by buying this car it allowed Thomas to get out of a car loan cosigned with an ex-girlfriend. Yeah, he'll never live that one down.

In the end, it was the drinking that made it impossible to keep. It had such a drinking problem we ended up having to cut ties with it. All it wanted to do was get high on gasoline 24/7. It started stealing from us. Lying just to get a fix. It had a problem and we just couldn't subject our family to it anymore.

In all seriousness, we couldn't deal with the crappy fuel mileage. We're hoping to cut our $500/month fuel costs in half. Maybe more. That would be awesome.

And, so, we're planning to join the ranks of subcompact car owners. It looks like the Yaris will be making an appearance at our house soon. It's attractive, inexpensive and gets about 31 miles to the gallon. Since the Xterra was paid off, we don't want to get into a huge payment. And, the Yaris is the commuter car we're looking for.

I'm just hoping Thomas doesn't end up feeling like Mr. Incredible driving that car. They don't call it subcompact for nothin'....

Oh, Birthday Fairy please bring me this...

Is it possible to be in love with a kitchen appliance? This thing is amazing.

Now if only I can convince my husband to spend $2000 on a cooktop. Do you think telling him it boils water in 90 seconds would win me any points?

Yeah, I didn't think so...

Today is THE Day!

Check out the First Ever Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling over at Today's Homemaker. It is going to have some amazing tips/tricks/projects from some totally great bloggers (and a few from me, too!).

This isn't your grandma's homemaking carnival. Did you grandma even have a homemaking carnival?

Nope. And if she did it could never have been this cool. (No offense Grandma!)

This is a totally modern, totally amazing homemaking carnival. Great for moms with kids, women without kids, women who work outside the home, and women who work within their home, people with houses, apartments, condos, and townhomes. Basically, it's for everyone! Whether you be a novice homemaker or a pro, this carnival is sure to have something cool for you to take away.

So, why are you still here? Go there and check it out!

***

What do you buy?

I just got back from Krogering and stocked my pantry with my purchases. And added yet another 3 boxes of pasta to the 4 boxes I already had. And, I wondered, what is with me and pasta?

But, it doesn't stop with pasta. 'Cause then I went to put away the frozen veggies I bought and discovered bags and bags and bags of frozen cauliflower, broccoli, peas, carrots.

It used to be that I would buy dryer sheets like a mad woman. Every single trip to the grocery resulted in boxes of dryer sheets. Boxes and boxes and boxes. In fact, I haven't bought dryer sheets in more than 6 months. I probably won't need them for another couple months. And I wash LOTS of clothes.

So, that begs the question. Is there something you compulsively buy every time you go to the store?

I dare you to say SAHMs are lazy!

Yes, I have my lazy days, but this should buy me at least two days of just hanging out around the house. Yesterday I pulled up the carpet and padding, took out all the staples and nails, and painted the floor. It took about 7.5 hours but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm going to pick up a nice runner today and we'll be done with the hall. Now, we just have the bedrooms to go. Those should be fun considering we have to completely empty the rooms for 6 hours in order to be able to pull up the carpet and paint the floors. I definitely think I'll wait until Thomas is home for the day!

Hallway Before-

Hallway After-
The pictures never come out as good as it is in person. But, trust me, it looks much better than the horrible nasty carpet we had before. In fact, I'm amazed at how well that carpet photographed. You'd be shocked if you'd seen it in person. Again, it was 11 years old we recently found out. And, let me say, if you have old carpet in your house pull it up 'cause you'd be horrified at what is sitting there underneath. Besides all the dust, dirt and random grodiness, we found old razors and discarded stuff from when Sear's put the carpet in the first time in 1997. 11 year old rusted out razors under your kids feet = horribleness!

Our new playroom...

yeah, I know the picture kind of sucks, but I didn't have the patience to take a pic with my digital camera and spend the time importing it. I will take a better one and post it only because I know Thomas will freak out when he sees such a crappy pic on the site.

Anyways, here's our playroom make-over. It's a creative and unconventional new look (painted sub-floors and a towel stapled to the fort as an awning) but I think it works. The girls love it and I am actually really enjoying hanging out in the new room.

Mission Completion!

We finished it! I wish the pics had come out better because it really does look cool. We just need a cool shag rug and we're done. We've moved all the kids toys in since this picture and it livens the room up considerably. We got this futon at Ikea this weekend 'cause Thomas' dad is coming to visit in May and we want him to have a place to stay (not to mention, I always did want the playroom to be a place I could cuddle up and read while the kids were playing!).

Finally, some words...

yes, we've been a little video heavy lately. Sorry, but we've just rediscovered how fun it is to do these videos with the girls.

Still, I wanted to post some pics of a project we're working on this weekend. It's still a work in progress but I thought I'd post them anyways. Basically, when we bought this house it came with some super grody carpet. Our plan was always to get rid of it right away but then life kind of happened and we didn't get a chance to do it right away. We got pricing to do hardwoods and well, it will be a while until we can afford to that. So, in the meantime we've chosen a less conventional idea. We're painting the subfloors. My sister, Tara, was the first person I knew to do it and it turned out awesome. So, I'm thinking it is going to be a good temporary solution because, the truth is, I couldn't live with that carpet one more day.

We started with the playroom and we'll do all the rooms eventually, but I thought I'd post some pics of our work in progress...




Now all we need to do is pull out staples and paint the floors with some floor paint. We're off to Lowe's now and we'll update with pics as soon as it's done!

Total Truth Tuesday

In an effort to have something to blog about every single day I have designated Tuesday my Total Truth day. Tuesday is the day I'll spill the beans more than usual and admit all my embarrassing and little known facts. And since it is total truth, I'll leave out the exaggerated bits. Just the facts. I promise.

Here we go.

Total Truth: In our house, childrens' socks are disposable. It's not that we throw them away after we're done wearing them, it is just that socks seem to disappear the moment they leave the foot. It goes beyond the whole socks disappearing in the dryer phenomenon.

I will buy a 12-pair pack of kids/toddler socks and at the end of the month, I can only find two or three. Not two or three pairs, two or three socks. I have tried any number of methods of keeping track of them but all to no avail. It is hopeless.

I've tried pairing them up when they come off the feet. Stuffing them in shoes until I do laundry. Collecting them in their own special laundry bin. They always disappear. I've begun to think when we move out of this house, the new owners will find 700 individual baby socks collected in some air conditioning duct.

It has even gotten to the point that I am overcome with anxiety when buying a pack of socks because I KNOW they will disappear into the abyss in just a short amount of time. My kids go to school even in winter without socks on their feet just because their mother is too freaked out at the prospect of buying more socks to offer up to the sock monster in their home. It is mystifying. It is shameful. It is totally true. No exaggeration.

But, I have found a somewhat okay solution for winter. We've started buying tights. Tights stay put. I have pairs of tights from when Kai was a newborn. So, for now, we're wearing tights under skirts, pants, jeans, and every thing else you can imagine. It may not be the best solution, but it keeps the sock monster away and that I can live with.