Pinterest Laundry Detergent

It's been all over Pinterest and I've debated and debated, but finally decided to try it.  Why in the world did I want to try this? Well my dear Mr. Fixit works around machines, oil and gas fumes in an un-air-conditioned environment and to say that he smells a little on the "rank" side when he gets home is an under statement.  Love him to pieces, but not how is work clothes smell when he gets home.

 

A lady at one of our little Antique Malls told me about her daughter made her own laundry detergent and I said "oh, you mean the one that you have to cook on the stove?" and she said " No! This is a powder mixture"!

Here the Angels singing? (AAAAHHHH!) She found the receipe on Pinterest. I came home and looked it up and it was everywhere.

 

So I know I'm not giving you something new, but thought you may want to give it a try without having to look it up yourself and to let you know what I think about it.

After a trip to Wally World (I try to avoid WW, but sometimes ya just have-ta go) I picked up the  necessary items.  I already had the Borax and Baking soda and I just noticed the Borax isn't in the photo, but it is in the new mixture. 

This is the formula that I found on Pinterest
1 4lb box of Mule Team Borax
1 3lb box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 3lb container of Oxi Clean
2 bars of Zote  or 4 bars of Fels Naptha Soap (grated)
4 1bs of Baking Soda
1 or 1 55 oz Purex Crystals.

Then you alternate mixing in the different ingredients, stirring while you go so that you won't have to stir so much at one time to integrate all the detergents.  I placed mine in a large trash bag that sat inside a plastic bin and would pick it up occasionally to mix everything up.

The instructions tell you to grate the bars of soap very fine or you could slice them into sections, put them in the microwave, let it puff up and then easily crumble it into the mixture. 

 

The instructions that I had said to heat it on high for 1 minute...I had to repeat that a few times and it still never Puffed up all the slices, but I was running out of room in my dish so I stopped it.

 

 

It's really pink, fluffy an  pretty and very fragrant. (I was a little bit tired of the fragrance after I spent all this time working on it)

 

I let it cool for awhile as I started mixing up some of the other items.  It  took awhile and it never got to the "crumbly" state that I had hoped for.  So I grated the last bar of Zote  and one of the Fels Neptha bars. 

 

Once everything was mixed, I used the Oxi Clean container to place in the cabinet in the laundry room and added a scoop so that we (Mr. Fixit)  wouldn't use too much.  Supposedly only 2 Tablespoons added into the drum of a front load washer is enough. I imagine you'll have to play around with what works for you.  Oh, and all the other blogs say that it's safe for a HP washer.  I guess since you only use 2 TBS, its not a problem. 

 

It was all overpoweringly fragrant and I was unsure about adding the Purex Crystals, but that actually helped calm down the fragrance.  I used the Lavender one and not the entire bottle.

 

The rest of the mixture was dumped into an old tennis ball bucket and will sit in the garage until we need to fill the inside tub again. 

 

As I type this blog post, I washed a blanket that I use on our bed for the dogs to lie on while I watch TV at night.  It's ready to go into the dryer and I'll have to say that the fragrance isn't strong at all. 

 

 

Not sure that I'll try this method again.  What I'm I going to do with all this mess?  Have you tried a Pinterest that worked or failed?

 

 

Fork Ran Away With the Spoon?

Is that correct?  I'll have to "google it".
This is one of my latest projects.  I needed some artwork for a recent vacant staging job and as always, keeping the costs down is a biggie as a stager.

I had these red lily panels and they have always been a favorite of mine, but I haven't used them in quite sometime, so I took them apart.

I spray painted the panels with black chalkboard paint (2 coats).  That wasn't quiet enough coverage so I rolled on 1 more coat for complete coverage.

The panels had a rough texture to them and I was a little worried about how that would look, but it turned out ok. 

 
 
 
Of course, I got this idea from a pinterest pin and checked out The Graphics Fairy site and down loaded her fork and spoon graphics. 

To make the images large enough for my project I had to print each utensil out on 3 separate sheets of paper.  Let me see if I can explain this...

-I saved the images as a jpeg,

-opened them in Microsoft paint program

-clicked file - print-page set up

-changed the orientation to landscape

-centered the image horizontally and vertically

-clicked fit to 3 x 1 pages

-clicked print and the image came out on three pages.

Carefully, the images were then cut out and taped together in the appropriate places.

 

See the spoon in the top of the photo all cut out and ready to be applied to the black board?

Mod Podge was applied all over the black board and I then applied the paper spoon.  Mod Podge was applied on top of the spoon and smoothed out with a wall paper roller (that's all I could find in my arsenal of tools)...it worked!

The "podge" will dry clear although it goes on like a milky paint and you have to be really careful not to tear your paper like I did...

See were all the extra podge is glopped on? I did that to try to place as much paper back as possible.  Once everything was dry, I used a black pen to fill in the lines that were "erased" away with to much vigor.

Once they were dry, I sprayed a little poly-acrylic sealer on them and popped them back into their frames.  They are a mess on the back, but no one can see that part.

I was extremely pleased with the results and the panels looked really good in the dining room of the staged house.

 

Have you tried podge-ing yet?

Swifter Refill

As a Pinterest addict, I've learn a few new tricks that have been fun to try.  The latest, using my old Swifter bottle to refill with my own cleaning solution.  I'm trying to make the switch over to more environmentally safe cleaning choices and want to use a vinegar solution to mop floors. 

While searching pinterest, I've found One Good Thing  by Jillee and she has some great ideas and I've tried several with great success. So when she posted this make-your-own-endless-supply-of-swifter-refills, I had to check it out. 

Then at the bottom of the post, she has an idea of how to refill the bottle to the swifter wet jet mop.  Brilliant!

I decided to give it a whirl...we have 2big dogs (at times 4 in all), in and out of the house not to mention all the human traffic, and our floors are always a mess. I try to over look it, but sometimes I just need to get up all the drool and paw prints, even if it only last for 1 hour. :(

Found a cork about the size of a sharpie marker...

 

Found a Drill bit about the size of the sharpie...(the sharpie was my measuring device, clever huh?)





 

Had to find a drill that would accommodate the large drill bit.  I had to bring out the big gun...a Black n Decker hammer drill (at least that's what I think it is).  It's so powerful, it has a cord to plug into an outlet instead of being cordless....arrr, arr, arr.

 

The drill bit was still a little to small for the cork size, so I had to rock it around a little to make the hole larger.  It worked!

 

 

Since I'm not sure if this will work, water was added to the canister and popped  back in place. If this doesn't work, I don't want to loose any precious cleaning solution. Removing the canister to fill and popping it back in place may have been a mistake. The water was leaking out, but then stopped.  Not sure if that will be a problem or not.  I've got it sitting in the laundry sink to see if it continues to leak.  I'll let you know if this is a win or a fail, soon.

 

What tips have you got to share?

We’ll See, Ce Ce Caldwell….

Just how washable are your paints!

Warning…this may take a while…

This weekend, the sun was out and a welcomed site.  We’ve had more than our share of rain this summer and many projects were put off due to the damp weather.  I was able to accomplish some of the projects that I had started and never finished. 

1^st project was to add one more coat of stain to our back porch dining table so I can start the protective clear coat this week. I'll post more on this project later...

2^nd was to hang the curtains in our bedroom, that I purchased last summer and never got around to hanging. Excuse the mess, it's a work in progress and you wouldn't believe the equipment used in this project...

3^rd seal the grout in our master bath shower that I replaced last weekend.

And I did all of that so that I could get downstairs and try out my newly purchased chalk paint.  I would not let myself start any project with this new discovery until I had finished the other projects.

 

If you aren’t familiar with chalk paint, it’s the be-all-end all in repainting furniture, kitchen cabinets, metal, you name it, you can use chalk paint on it.  Stripping the furniture or sanding is not required.  All you have to do is make sure the piece is clean and start painting, however waxing is required at the end to protect the paint and enhance the color.

We live 45 minutes south of Atlanta and there aren’t any vendors that carry any of the popular brands of chalk paint (Annie Sloan, Ce Ce Caldwell, Miss Mustard Seed, etc.) in our area.  There is a shop in Senoia, Ga. that sells it, but I’m never in that area and it’s a long way to drive for me to buy 1 quart of this expensive wondrous paint.

 

Fate intervened in that I needed to meet a client on Friday, to discuss an upcoming home staging project and she suggested The Senoia Coffee and Café.

 

Well, twist my arm why don’t you? As soon as we finished our meeting, I made a bee line to the cute little shop that carried the Annie Sloan brand and as I was leaving that shop noticed another shop that carried the Ce Ce Caldwell brand.  I purchased A. S. duck egg blue, and CCC in pure white. I couldn’t wait to get home and start using my new purchases.

I was so excited to try it, I didn’t know which way to turn.  What would I start painting first?  

I had this little picture frame that I wanted to paint, so I added a coat of CCC pure white to it.  You can see that I had added painters tape (another project that didn’t get finished) to create stripes and all I had to do was start painting. Out in the sun it goes to dry. 

 

Then I had some old faded reed placemats and I put a coat of AS duck egg blue on those….out into the sun it goes.  Not really sure that I like these painted, but I needed something to paint quickly.

 

I’m in the basement, practically turning around in circles, excitedly trying to decide on what to paint next and I spotted a mirror I’ve been wanting to lighten up.  I snatch it off the wall and lay it on the table and start applying AS duck egg blue.  I was so excited to use this beautiful paint that I didn’t take any before photos.

 

 

Got that coat on, applied a 2^nd coat to the now dried placemats and then decided to add one more coat of white to the little picture frame before I stopped.

 

Now let me just say, I know that I tapped that lid on the CCC paint after I used it the first time….I just know that I DID!  I grabbed the paint in one hand, started to shake the container and guess what?  The lid was loose and paint was splashing out EVERY WHERE!  I was a gasp, I say, absolutely gasping!  

It was on the floor (carpet tiles) on furniture legs, on the wall, all over my clothes and me.  While wanting to throw up because of the mess that I had just made and because of all that expensive chalk paint that I had just wasted, the only thing that I could think of was…"well they say it just cleans up with water and a little bit of soap, so we’ll just see if it actually does. We'll just see Ce Ce Caldwell!)

I started pulling up the glued carpet tiles and taking them outside one by one to hose off, I would wet one down and then go get another one. Once they were all outside, I added some spray cleaner and started hosing.  And it did wash completely out of the carpet tiles.  WHEW! 

 

I

The walls and some of the other places that got splattered were not so lucky...

And my paint clothes may not recover...

 

I’m still locating paint splatters, but I’m not going to let it upset me.  These things happen.  Get over it!  Move on!  Go paint something else and be sure the lid is on  next time. 

 

Typography Tutorial

Having long admired the cute typography art work in all the stores and all over Pinterest but not wanting to pay the prices at the stores, I researched how to create one myself.

 

But how to get the letters even and steady looking.  Anyone that knows me knows that I have horrible penmanship and trying to free hand something like this was not an option, if I wanted to be able to read it later while hanging on the wall.

You Are My Sunshine is a song I used to sing to my grandson while trying to get him to settle down and decided to use the beginning verse as my art project.

Finally, I found this site giving instructions on how to mirror print from your printer and then transfer the print to your board, canvas or whatever you are using by wetting the back of the paper. 

 

The hardest part was trying to figure out how to mirror print on my printer, but I finally got it. 

By following the instructions from the tutorial, it did work…sorta!  I ended up going back over the letters with a pencil to fill in a little darker, however that tended to smudge a little if I wasn’t careful.  Spraying some poly acrylic over the entire canvas prevented any additional smudging.

I wish I had a picture of how it looked before I added some stain to give it an aged look, but our computer crashed and I lost a ton of photos and docs…proving that we really do need to regularly back up our files!  Big sigh!  I don’t even know what all I lost until I go back to find it and it’s not there.  Big sigh!

Anyhoo…using a little bit of the stain that I used on the Horse With No Name project, I did a little dry brushing onto the canvas so that it wouldn’t be so “bright”.  I'm beginning to appreciate age, patina, character, wrinkles, cellulite….oh, let me get back on track.

 

 

And this is how it looks while at work in a staged home….it makes me happy when skies are grey and we’ve had plenty of those lately. 

Now I know it doesn't look all professionally done like the ones that you can go out and purchase, but I like that part of it too....it's something that I created and that makes me happy too!

What projects are you working on lately?

 

 

How To Cover Dining Room Chairs for under $8

This is one of the best deals I think that I've ever discovered.  A few weeks ago, while shopping for an upcoming vacant staging job, I found these curtain panels on sale from $29.99 to $16.99.  The colors and fabric pattern were perfect to  update some things that I already had in the works for this project. So, in the buggy a panel went.

I can't drive to Atlanta and shop at Forsyth Fabrics or Lewis Textiles for $16.99!  And if I did, the least expensive I could purchase the fabric would be around $15/yard.  These panels were 54" w x 95" long.  This was a DEAL folks!

 

However, I always check out the end caps for clearance items and guess what I found?   Give up?  This bunched up packaged panel for only $7.56.  Only $7.56?  Really? 

 

 

 

See where it says "online item"?  I guess someone had ordered it online and returned to our local Target and since it wasn't packaged the same as the others, ended up on the clearance shelf. 

Score!

 

I couldn't get out of there fast enough.  I kept thinking someone was going to come over to me and tell me that the panel was mistakenly placed on the clearance shelf and the price marked was incorrect.  





 

Once home, I opened the package and pressed the panel and thought about the best way to use it.  Pillows for sure, then I remembered that I was going to use some antique chairs that I had and the chair pads had not been updated in about 20 or more years.  They still had the hunter green & cream gingham check fabric that I added way back in the day when "the country" look was all the rage. 

 

 

WAY BACK!

 

Mr. Fixit had to make a few repairs so they would be safe to sit in and while he did that, I started laying out the seats on top of the new fabric to measure for cutting.  I added 3 inches all the way around and cut out enough for 4 seats.

Once all covers were cut, I started stapling and pulling.  It's not difficult and it goes fairly quickly. 

Sometimes I had to use my little pink hammer to get the staple all the way in. 

 

To create a neat corner....I folded up the corner like so and stapled...

 

 

 

Then tightly pulled up the bottom portion of the corner and stapled.

 

Then pulled over the side part of the corner and stapled

 It's a little bit like wrapping a package. 

 

Look at how they update these chairs...

 and see how good they look with this white table ...

 

Some of the left over panel was used to make a table runner for the table and I still have enough left over to cover some throw pillows.



 

All of this for under $8!