still swimming.

Life is a little overwhelming right now. If you are unsure why refer to this post. It's not a bad thing, I just can't seem to keep up. The house seems to always be messy, meals are never made, and I seem to always be trying to catch up on a project.

Worst of all, I haven't had any time to do the creative things I love. Although I know it's just a temporary phase in my life, it's still a little hearbreaking. I have the desire to create and the inspiration, but I just don't have the time, or when I do have the time I don't have the physical energy. My "craft room" has turned into my version of Monica's Freak Closet; anything that doesn't have a place ends up there.

I miss Friends.

I have so many things to blog about, but blogging just isn't high on my priority list right now. Sigh.

I'll get it together eventually, this semester will be finished eventually, I'll be completely organized eventually. Right?!

In the words of Dori: "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!"

I think she saw my Craft Room.

Green Cleaning Tutorial

I'm really passionate about the environment (if you haven't already gotten that hint). I do my best to use earth-friendly practices in my housework routines. Alot of people think that "clean" means bleached and lemon-scented. In reality, having that "clean" smell can actually be dangerous. According to the EPA (yes, I frequent their site. Nerd.) the air inside an average home is five times as polluted than the air outside. A big culprit: toxic cleansers and disinfectants.

Now, I admit that I'm a sucker for Febreze, especially this time of year. Having a home that smells like apples and cinnamon or pumpkin pie is nirvana to me. I do try to balance to balance my spritzing habit with soy based scented candles. And obviously, if you have a sickness going through your home, a child who is high-risk for infection, or another need for disinfecting I won't give you the stink eye for spraying some lysol on the doorknobs. Just know that there are almost always other options, especially in our more eco-concious consumer world, to the typical harsh cleansers available. Like this, this, or this, which can all be found in most retailers today.

Okay, let me step down from my soapbox and get to the real point of my blog.

Did you know that you can thoroughly clean your sink and drain with items you probably already have on hand?

You may not buy big quantities like I do, but together these cost about $3.

It's easy, effective, and safe. Let me show you....

Start out with a dirty sink. Get as much gunk into the drain and run the disposable to clear it all out.

Sprinkle in some baking soda. No measuring, just eyeball it.

You don't need near this much, I got a little happy because I was trying to take pics at the same time.
Half of this amount would be plenty.

Using a wet sponge (or whatever you like) thoroughly scour the sink. You can add more water to make a nice paste to work with. You won't have to use much elbow grease; baking soda is a natural and gentle abrasive.

Once the basin is scrubbed well move most of the baking soda into the drain. Make sure to get all the nooks and crannies here, then push everything down into the pipe.

Now it's time for Mr. Vinegar. Pour the vinegar all around the basin and into the drain. Again, just eyeball it.

Everything will bubble up, natural scrubbing bubbles! Scrub a little more with the bubbles.

Once the bubbling action has ceased rinse everything with hot water.

You have a clean and healthy sink!

You can use these same ingredients all over your house. I know you may be thinking "I don't want my kitchen to smell like vinegar!", but don't worry, it won't. Baking soda and vinegar are both natural odor eliminators. So while it may have a pungent smell for a minute, in the end it actually neutralizes odors unlike chemicals that just mask them. Vinegar is also a mild disinfectant; it won't kill every germ, but it will do a pretty satisfactory job. I usually do this two to three times a week, however you could do it as often as you see fit. There is no need for gloves or open windows. It's even safe enough for kiddos to do (with supervision, of course) and they would get a kick out of the bubbling action.

So strive to be a green cleaner this week. It's healthier for you, the planet, and your wallet :)

Until next time,
Barbie

Free art!

Hooray, I'm blogging! *virtual pat on back*

I'm always trying to think of ways to reuse "trash" and turn it into something beautiful. Well, do you remember the canvas I found while dumpster diving awhile ago? It was a print of a cafe scene, not horrid, but not my style. Well I tranformed it into artwork for our bedroom!

Materials used:

- Canvas, DD find (free)
- Mod Podge (on hand)
- Old packing paper (on hand)
- Several toilet paper tubes (on hand and free)
- Acryilic paint (on hand)

Total cost: FREE!

It was pretty simple to do. I tore up pieces of the packing paper and used Mod Podge to cover the canvas. Then I flattened out the toilet paper tubes and painted them different colors to coordinate with my bedroom decor. You could also paint the inside if you really wanted to, but I like the two-tone effect, plus the brown was already used in the room some. Let paint dry, then cut the tubes (I think I cut each one into five or six pieces). I played around with the placement of all the pieces until I had a design I liked. I filled a little dish with a layer of Mod Podge, dipped one side of a TP piece in, then pressed it onto the canvas, holding until it stuck well. I painted the outside edge of the canvas black, just to make it a little cleaner.

I can't take credit for the whole idea, I was inspired by this.

I love how it turned out. Now I just need to make some art for above the bed. I have some ideas, but suggestions are welcome!

snore.....

P.S. - The bedroom isn't always this clean ;)

I'm here, I promise.

I received a Facebook message at the beginning of the month.  I won't say who it's from, but this is what it said:

"When are you going to update your blog? I love reading about the things you find. You have inspired us to go out and do it as a family. My 4 year old has found himself a cars step stool and match box cars. I picked up my husband a like new golf bag the other day (he was thrilled). Anyways just wanted to say thanks!! "

When I read this I felt so blessed to have inspired someone with my crazy hippie shenanigans, but at the same time I felt guilty because I'm letting people down now. So let me give a brief explanation to my recent (and hopefully soon to be ended) absence.

I'm alive, I swear. Within the past couple weeks my life has gone from simple to EXTREMELY busy. Within one week I started two college classes, got a job working weekends at my favorite place, and my husband broke his foot. The next week I was offered a job teaching dance at the local youth center and was asked to volunteer my choreography services to a local youth cheerleading squad. That means that Mondays are the only evenings I am home.  Cherry on top: I'm running a 5k on the 26th (I may not be alive after that).

I think several times a day about blogging, I have sooo many ideas in my head just waiting to hit the web. Whenever a spare second comes around though, I notice how messy the house is or I'm just too exhausted to even keep my eyes open.

Don't get me wrong though, everything that has come into my life recently (besides hubby's broken foot) has been wonderful, I'm just still trying to figure out how to balance everything since my life has been so low-key for so long. I have a good chunk of time free tomorrow morning, so I will do my best to get SOMETHING up. Thanks for your patience and encouragement, it is greatly appreciated!

Again soon,
Barbie

PS. I recently had a conversation with my good friend Elisabeth about how we hate blog posts without pictures, they are so boring. So here is a picture :)

I want to lounge under this tree with apple cider and a good book.

Long time no blog.

So it's been awhile since I last blog. I blame A) my three week trip to Nebraska to visit family and B) my laziness (since I've been back for a couple weeks now). I've never been good at routine; I've never been able to journal for more than a week, I don't remember to take my multi-vitamins every day, and apparently I can't blog consistently either. But now is better than never right?

Like I previously mentioned, I spent most of July and early August in the midwest visiting family. It was just me and my Sweetpea visiting, giving Daddy a little break. We drove (well, I drove) the two day trip. Seems horrible, but Aliyah is a good passenger since she's been driving literally across the country since she was an infant. I just stocked up on Red Bull and sang Dixie Chicks the whole way. Our visit was long overdue so I expected to stay awhile, although things got a little lengthier with the complication of my sister getting an appendectomy. RIP Bailey's appendix. Overall it was a wonderful trip.

I want to share with you what my sister and I did (before losing her appendix) for my mom during my visit. We are super proud of our work, and I'm super proud of how thrifty we were ;) This is what my mom's kitchen looked like before:

To be fair, that's how it was when we moved in over 10 years ago, so you can't blame my mom. It was just all wrong though, from the bunnies on the wallpaper to the bunnies stenciled along the top. The dark cabinets looked dated and were generally in need of maintenance. The kitchen doesn't have a built-in dishwasher, so there was a rolling one that you hooked up to the faucet. It never got used though, so Craigslist found it a new home (and we got more money in our budget). The general plan of attack was to just freshen everything up.

About four days and alot of blood, sweat, and tears later, this was the finished result!

We removed the wallpaper, primed, and painted with a lovely, warm color called "Toffee Crunch". RIP blue bunnies! We also removed all the cabinets so they could be cleaned, the hinges got a good dose of WD-40, and we put new knobs and drawer pulls on.  After all that diry work was done we had alot of fun doing the decorating. The new curtains, the blue sign that says "Live Simply" and some new dishtowels and oven mitts came from Big Lots. (They were having a special 20% off sale so we got the towels cheaper than we would have at the Dollar Tree - how often does THAT happen?!)

This shelf was just on the other side of this dividing wall. We moved it into the kitchen and antiqued it with a little white paint and some sandpaper.  The artwork up above is from the Dollar Tree and the decorative blue balls were from Big Lots. You may be wondering why I'm telling you where everything came from; I am proud of the bargains I find and love to share them. I'm that person who, when you compliment an article of clothing, immediately tells you it was on sale/clearance/had a coupon/whatever. But I digress... The jar of seashells were collected by my grandfather while he served in the Pacific in WWII, and the schoolbell belonged to my grandmother. Most of the dished/knick knacks were pulled from the back of cabinets. The photos of Aliyah were taken by my good friend Elisabeth at ElisabethCS, frames from the Dollar Tree.

You may have noticed the blue breadbox in the before pictures, we gave that a coat of white spray paint and then painted the front with chalkboard paint. We thought it would be useful for shopping lists or notes or for wonderful artwork by a three year old ;)

I made customizable recycling containers with some spray paint, a homemade stencil, and some more chalkboard paint. Great way to reuse a kitty litter container!

I'm really proud of the cabinet fixtures. It was a small change that really made a big impact in the end. I adore the little bird art too, which of course came from the Dollar Tree :)

All these items were hiding in a cupboard, but I think they are a really good addition to the whole asthetic. I also want to mention how much the new wall color reinvigorates the (realllllly outdated) linoleum counters.

And this little detail is possibly my favorite part. The first person to figure out how it came to be wins 1,000 Friendship Dollars!

Alright, that concludes this HGTV-like entry. I promise to blog again soon as I've been super crafty lately....

Wordless Wednesday

For the Kids in America (woahohoh!)

 Things have been busy around here. We are visiting family this weekend and, since I hate coming home after a trip to a dirty house, I've been cleaning like crazy the past couple days. I've only gotten a few treasures the past couple weeks, but I thought I'd share a little collection of kid-friendly findings.

I already posted about the awesome booster seat that Aliyah now has, but here are a few toys and things that I've come across in my DD "career":

- A Little Tykes wheelbarrow (donated)
- A small boys bike with training wheels (donated)
- Various children's chairs and stools  (I use to elevated potted plants on my porch)
- A Spongebob outdoor table and chair (used for a bit then donated)
- A Step 2 baby swing shaped like a dolphin (still up for grabs!)
- A Disney Princess playhut. Was missing the pastic poles but my neighbor was kind enough to rig it with some bamboo he had on hand. (definite keep)

There may be more that I can't think of right now. Alot of it was found before I started taking pictures for the blog. But I know of at least a two to get a smile out of my finds....