Tonight we depart for an adventure involving a Harry, an Andrew and a Will. Unfortunately I am not dining will the Royal family as it may sound, but I am going to three equally exciting events.
Harry: Tomorrow all my dreams will come true when I go to Island of Adventure's Harry Potter's Wizarding World in Orlando. If you know me, you know that I love the Harry Potter books. I am seriously shaking I am so excited.
Andrew: Tomorrow night, we will attend the Orlando Magic game to see St. Bonaventure University star Andrew Nicholson in action as an NBA Baller.
Will: On Saturday we will be hitting up Gainesville to watch the Will Muschamp's Gators take on Missouri. It will be my first time watching a team coached by Will live. The last game I was at was the National Championship game vs Oklahoma in Miami when Tim Tebow was the quarterback and Urban Meyer was the coach.
I can't wait for the exciting weekend ahead, what do you all have planned? Any cool project?
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Design Dilemma: Awkward Mantle Space
My friend Jessica has a little design dilemma she asked for my input on. She has a very large and high shelf/mantle area that she isn't quite sure what to do with. She could put some greenery and iron stuff up there, but she wants something more unique with some pops of color. The tricky part is that the space is very large, so it could get quite expensive. I have never been to her house, so I don't have a good feel for the size, but I am guessing it is bigger than it looks.
Here are some of my ideas, what are yours?
Blue or green glass. Both are pretty trendy and VERY easy to find at Goodwill and other thrift stores for a dollar or two an item. I think it would look cool to do all blue, blue and clear, green and clear, or a mixture of all three colors in various sizes and shapes. That way whenever you find more you can add, but there is no pressure to be uniform. Here is a inspiration photo.
My other suggestions would be to decide on several colors and paint some clear glass. Go to a goodwill and pick up a bunch of random clear glass vases and containers and paint them. Here are some things I found on pinterest. I love the idea of taking the rubber bands and putting them around the glass and then spray painting for some added design. I would stick to three or four different colors so that there is a theme. Just make sure you get a good spray paint, that says it is made for glass.
See the tutorial on spray-painting glass here.
Another idea would be colorful, empty wine bottles. Currently Jessica is pregnant, so I am not going to recommend drinking crates of wine, but wine bottles can be easy to come by if you ask your wine-drinking friends to stock up for a few weeks. Also if you check craigslist under "free" there is often a link for free wine bottles if you come and pick them up. There are a lot of people who know that they are trendy in decorating right now and are willing to help out! You could even spray paint them for real pops of color. These aren't the best pictures, but you can get the idea....
My final idea would be to do some pops of color with artwork, similar to younghouselove's behind the couch artwork. Just instead of putting the big, square, white frames on the wall behind the couch, put them in a line in the shelf space.
You really could just frame plain colorful paper, or get more creative and add little prints of notecards or something like that. This way you could switch it out when you get sick of it. Like they did here. The only thing is that you would probably want uniform frames, so you most likely couldn't find them at a second-hand store. But Michael's has sales on frames a lot, plus they have coupons all the time.
Frames are ridiculously expensive, and one of the best things to buy at thrift stores. So, you could find a bunch of random frames at goodwill, etc., spray paint all the frames white and them frame colorful paper or fabric and just lean them on the wall, like this shelf. (but colorful)
Another idea would be to gather frames, spray paint them white, and paint the glass with colorful chalkboard paint.
Can't wait to see what Jessica does with the space!! Any other ideas for Jessica?? Anyone else have an awkward space they don't know what to do with?
Here are some of my ideas, what are yours?
Blue or green glass. Both are pretty trendy and VERY easy to find at Goodwill and other thrift stores for a dollar or two an item. I think it would look cool to do all blue, blue and clear, green and clear, or a mixture of all three colors in various sizes and shapes. That way whenever you find more you can add, but there is no pressure to be uniform. Here is a inspiration photo.
My other suggestions would be to decide on several colors and paint some clear glass. Go to a goodwill and pick up a bunch of random clear glass vases and containers and paint them. Here are some things I found on pinterest. I love the idea of taking the rubber bands and putting them around the glass and then spray painting for some added design. I would stick to three or four different colors so that there is a theme. Just make sure you get a good spray paint, that says it is made for glass.
See the tutorial on spray-painting glass here.
Another idea would be colorful, empty wine bottles. Currently Jessica is pregnant, so I am not going to recommend drinking crates of wine, but wine bottles can be easy to come by if you ask your wine-drinking friends to stock up for a few weeks. Also if you check craigslist under "free" there is often a link for free wine bottles if you come and pick them up. There are a lot of people who know that they are trendy in decorating right now and are willing to help out! You could even spray paint them for real pops of color. These aren't the best pictures, but you can get the idea....
My final idea would be to do some pops of color with artwork, similar to younghouselove's behind the couch artwork. Just instead of putting the big, square, white frames on the wall behind the couch, put them in a line in the shelf space.
You really could just frame plain colorful paper, or get more creative and add little prints of notecards or something like that. This way you could switch it out when you get sick of it. Like they did here. The only thing is that you would probably want uniform frames, so you most likely couldn't find them at a second-hand store. But Michael's has sales on frames a lot, plus they have coupons all the time.
Frames are ridiculously expensive, and one of the best things to buy at thrift stores. So, you could find a bunch of random frames at goodwill, etc., spray paint all the frames white and them frame colorful paper or fabric and just lean them on the wall, like this shelf. (but colorful)
Another idea would be to gather frames, spray paint them white, and paint the glass with colorful chalkboard paint.
Can't wait to see what Jessica does with the space!! Any other ideas for Jessica?? Anyone else have an awkward space they don't know what to do with?
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Cleaning on the Cheap
Today I had a request for a blog entry about using homemade cleaning products. About 8 months ago I concocted a few different homemade cleaning solutions to test them out and I have stuck with almost all of them. The reason I decided to switch was
1. because I am super cheap and cleaning solution is fairly pricey
2. I was trying to reduce the amount of chemicals in my home
Here is a pretty comprehensive list where I got most of my "recipes". The only non-homemade products I consistently use are a special "urine eliminator" carpet solution for when Mowgli has accidents, dish washing detergent, and Dawn liquid soap. I also keep a container of Clorox wipes on hand in case of a rare instance where I feel like I need something strong to kill bacteria.
The one item I use and love the most is my homemade laundry soap. I have always used liquid laundry soap so the first homemade version I tried was a liquid version, but it was pretty messy to make. It worked good, but after I used it all up I tried the powder version. It was super easy to make and worked just fine, plus it is about a tenth of the cost of regular detergent.
I do realize that I don't have kids and therefore don't usually have many tough stains, so if anyone tries this with heavy duty stains let me know the results. It works with high efficiency washers for those wondering about that. Here is the recipe:
1/2 bar Fels naptha soap (chop/grate very finely)
1 cup washing suds
1 cup borax
While I am chopping, I usually just do the whole bar of soap and double the recipe. Use one tablespoon per load. And I found all of these ingredients in the detergent section at Kroger.
As far as fabric softener goes, just use plain old vinegar!!
Basically what I have learned in making my own cleaning solutions is that pretty much anything can be cleaned using a combination of vinegar and water.
My other favorite thing is Dr.Bronner's soap. You'll notice many of the recipes call for it. It has basically 1,000 uses and a wonderful peppermint smell. I use it as Mowgli's shampoo and I also use it for hand soap. For the had soap I use 1 part of the soap to about 5 parts water. It is pretty potent stuff. I don't know if this is just luck, but we had previously bought the foam kind of hand soap. When I filled the empty containers with the homemade solution, it came out in foam form. Perhaps it is just the pump that makes it foam? Anybody know? I don't know why it happens, but I like it.
They have Dr. Bronner's at Target and at Kroger. You won't be able to find it at target, because it is in the beauty section, so you will have to ask someone for help. When you ask someone for help they will say they don't have it. You must not accept this for an answer and demand they look it up on some sort of computer until they find it because I guarantee you they have it. This was my experience trying to find it at Target, hopefully you find someone more helpful.
The carpet cleaner I find to be most effective is to take a cup and put some baking soda in it, then SLOWLY add in vinegar and mix together with a tooth brush. Then rub into the carpet stain with the toothbrush. Wait about 30 minutes and vacuum it up.
I recently saw this recipe for dish washing detergent:
Equal parts Baking Soda and Borax mixed together
Use just like a commercial powdered detergent, approximately 2 TBS per load
Each load will cost you mere pennies. (also use vinegar in the jet dry well instead of the expensive stuff)
I haven't tried it yet, so if anyone does please let me know how it works.
Hope you all switch to more natural and more inexpensive solutions soon!
1. because I am super cheap and cleaning solution is fairly pricey
2. I was trying to reduce the amount of chemicals in my home
Here is a pretty comprehensive list where I got most of my "recipes". The only non-homemade products I consistently use are a special "urine eliminator" carpet solution for when Mowgli has accidents, dish washing detergent, and Dawn liquid soap. I also keep a container of Clorox wipes on hand in case of a rare instance where I feel like I need something strong to kill bacteria.
The one item I use and love the most is my homemade laundry soap. I have always used liquid laundry soap so the first homemade version I tried was a liquid version, but it was pretty messy to make. It worked good, but after I used it all up I tried the powder version. It was super easy to make and worked just fine, plus it is about a tenth of the cost of regular detergent.
I do realize that I don't have kids and therefore don't usually have many tough stains, so if anyone tries this with heavy duty stains let me know the results. It works with high efficiency washers for those wondering about that. Here is the recipe:
1/2 bar Fels naptha soap (chop/grate very finely)
1 cup washing suds
1 cup borax
While I am chopping, I usually just do the whole bar of soap and double the recipe. Use one tablespoon per load. And I found all of these ingredients in the detergent section at Kroger.
As far as fabric softener goes, just use plain old vinegar!!
Basically what I have learned in making my own cleaning solutions is that pretty much anything can be cleaned using a combination of vinegar and water.
My other favorite thing is Dr.Bronner's soap. You'll notice many of the recipes call for it. It has basically 1,000 uses and a wonderful peppermint smell. I use it as Mowgli's shampoo and I also use it for hand soap. For the had soap I use 1 part of the soap to about 5 parts water. It is pretty potent stuff. I don't know if this is just luck, but we had previously bought the foam kind of hand soap. When I filled the empty containers with the homemade solution, it came out in foam form. Perhaps it is just the pump that makes it foam? Anybody know? I don't know why it happens, but I like it.
They have Dr. Bronner's at Target and at Kroger. You won't be able to find it at target, because it is in the beauty section, so you will have to ask someone for help. When you ask someone for help they will say they don't have it. You must not accept this for an answer and demand they look it up on some sort of computer until they find it because I guarantee you they have it. This was my experience trying to find it at Target, hopefully you find someone more helpful.
The carpet cleaner I find to be most effective is to take a cup and put some baking soda in it, then SLOWLY add in vinegar and mix together with a tooth brush. Then rub into the carpet stain with the toothbrush. Wait about 30 minutes and vacuum it up.
I recently saw this recipe for dish washing detergent:
Equal parts Baking Soda and Borax mixed together
Use just like a commercial powdered detergent, approximately 2 TBS per load
Each load will cost you mere pennies. (also use vinegar in the jet dry well instead of the expensive stuff)
I haven't tried it yet, so if anyone does please let me know how it works.
Hope you all switch to more natural and more inexpensive solutions soon!
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