Show-And-Tell Saturday: Ten Pin Plan Report

If you remember back to the 16th of this month (or look back if you have to), I came up with my 10 Pin Plan. This was a list of 10 pins I was going to test over two weeks and then I'd report to you today on the successes, failures, and in-betweens. I've been working hard to get all the pins done and I'm excited to share the results with you! 

So, in the order that these pins got done, I give you my Ten Pin Report: 

Pin Report #1:

http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2009/07/crockpot-italian-chicken.html

My friend made this recipe way before I did and said that it was so salty that they had to throw it away. It sounded so good from the recipe though that I still wanted to give it a try. So I did. The recipe calls for 1-2 cans of cream of chicken soup. I figured that was where a good amount of the sodium was coming from, so I did half Cream of Chicken and half Cream of Mushroom soup (I don't find Cream of Mushroom to be as salty as Cream of Chicken). I knew that would change up the flavor some, but if it made it so we could eat it, that was fine. I do know that some brands of Cream of Chicken soup have a higher sodium content than others as well, so when you're making this, take that into consideration. Another thing we did, following a tip in the recipe, to cut back on the salt and to thin the sauce/gravy down to a more preferable consistency was to add some milk.

In the end, the flavor was good and it wasn't unedibly salty. You definitely didn't need to add salt, but it wasn't inedible. It reminded us of a mix between the gravy for Hawaiian Haystacks and cheap alfredo sauce. It really wasn't a bad meal at all, just not one of our uber favorites.
I thought about taking a picture, and I probably should have...but really it looked about like the picture (only we had ours on rice, not pasta). It's just a cream sauce with chicken. Another picture would kinda be overkill. That's how it looks. 

Pin Report #2:

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/04/how-to-clean-your-top-loader-washing.html

Again...I didn't take a photo. Partly...I didn't think to take a before shot, so it doesn't do much good to show you the after shot as you won't know the drastic improvement. But...this works fantastically. It's not uncommon for me to forget a load in the washer and have to rewash it because it went sour. After enough times of doing this, along with the general grime build up, my washer looked and smelled less than pleasant. Not something you want to put clothes in to try and get them clean. Now, my washer smells so nice and fresh, the clothes came out smelling fresher than they have for a while, and it looks so clean and wonderful! This was really easy to do and it's made a difference in my washer and laundry. I'd recommend it!

Pin Report #3

http://www.ohnuts.com/blog/cinnamon-bun-pecan-pie-recipe/

This one I do have pictures for. I decided that I wanted to do the apple pie in the cinnamon roll crust because apples were on sale and it just sounded yummy. I had this pinned to test the crust out anyway. So I followed the directions to put the cinnamon roll style crust together. The directions said you can use pre-made crust, or make your own from scratch, so I turned to my trusty pie crust recipe (it really is simple and really yummy). I did a double batch of pie crust dough for the bottom so I would be sure to have enough and it ended up being perfect. It really was easy to put the crust together, the directions are simple. Here's what my crust looked like after getting it in the pan:

Then, this is the recipe I used for the pie. I'm not normally a huge apple pie fan, but I love this recipe and it's so easy. Cut up the apples, put the lattice top on, and then you make a caramel sauce and pour it through the lattice. SOOOOOoooo yummy and easy. For the lattice top I rolled out the plain dough, then spread some melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar on top. I then smooshed the dough back together gently (because you don't want to mix it too well), and rolled it out again to get a sort of cinnamon/sugar marbled effect going on. Then I cut my lattice strips and put the top on. Here's the pie right before going into the oven:

And here's the finished product!

So we know it looks cool, but what about the taste? Let's just say that I will forever do my apple pie crusts like this now. It's adds such a subtle but yummy yumm yummy flavor to the pie. And I apparently didn't get the bottom crust flattened as thin as I thought so I ended up with a thicker crust (which I LOVE) that is extra yummy to eat because of the cinnamon in it and the pie filling soaked in. This one is WELL worth the time it takes to make it. MMMmmmmmmm.


Pin Report #4

http://www.dumpaday.com/random-pictures/funny-pictures/funny-picture-dump-of-the-day-54-pics/

This one was hilarious. I drew the eyebrows on my nephew right before my baby shower started and then let him ham it up during the shower. His facial expressions were hilarious. But anytime I pulled out the camera, I got this face:


My sister and I tried and tried to get a good reaction when I had the camera out and he just wasn't going for it. But it was hilarious just watching him during the baby shower. Here are the 5 best shots I got of him during the day:

So this one is hilarious...but catching the hilarity "on film" may be another issue.


Pin Report #5

http://www.thesmallthingsblog.com/2012/10/casual-half-up-hair-tutorial-polka-dots.html

I have been waiting since last August to have my hair long enough to pin up, pull up, ponytail, leave down, etc., and finally it is reaching a doable length. But now that it's long enough to put up...I just don't know what to do with it. I've had this hairstyle pinned for a while now. Most half-up, half down do's make me look like I'm 11, but this one looked like a more grown up version of the half up/down do so I thought I'd give it a try. It looked simple enough. After getting the layering and texturizing my thick head of hair needed (thanks Em!), I knew it was time to try this out. From bed head to this do it took me about 20 minutes. That's brushing out my hair, giving it a light curling job, and then following her instructions. Here's what I ended up with this morning:

It really did go up pretty simple. I think I have thicker hair than Kate (the lady from the pin), but I was able to make it work and my layers were just long enough for this. Because I have a ton of hair, I ended up using about 8 bobby pins in the back to hold the hair in place. So the actual assembly of this do was pretty simple and doable. Then I decided I wanted to see how it held up during a day of laundry, dishes and sewing (don't you love the days where you get to play catch up because you've been gone all day every preceding day of the week?). Here's how it looked at 4 pm (6 1/2 hours later):

It's held up remarkable well. I don't know how it'd do out on a super windy or rainy day, but not many hair styles withstand that very well. But, for shopping, social events, church, etc., this would work out great! Yea for a new do!

Pin Report #6

http://www.sevenelles.com/tutorials/day-3-the-coolest-spot-in-the-house-just-became-even-cooler-fridge-coasters-tutorial/

So I've had this pinned to do for forever. I thought it looked genius. I was hoping to just use what I already had at home to keep this cheap. I didn't have placemats, but I did have non-adhesive shelf liner. But when I pulled that out this past week, I realized it wouldn't work. It wasn't smooth top liner, it has built in holes. Like this:

So I could put that down on the shelves, but any liquid or anything would just flow through the holes to the shelf and then I'd have the liner and the shelf to clean. No thanks. Luckily I thought ahead and then measured the shelves before I want to Wally World. My fridge is the normal upright kind with the freezer on top and the fridge on bottom. Which means the shelves in the fridge are wide. Wide enough that they don't make placemats that big. I thought about doing a few placemats side by side, but I imagined them shifting around, spills going in the cracks and under the mats and then stinking. It just wasn't going to cut it. So then I thought about a tablecloth, but to get one that would work well was more than I wanted to spend on fridge mats. So I scrapped this project. I did try, but it just isn't really all that feasible in my fridge. If I had a side-by-side fridge with more narrow shelves, this would work just fine I'm sure. 

Pin Report #7

http://www.agirlandagluegun.com/2012/03/oh-walti-love-you-aka-disney-printables.html

It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to do this, and then I came up with an idea I loved. I have this ceramic "canister" on the kitchen window sill above the sink. We use it to hold our scrub brush. It's handy, but it's not the most beautiful thing:

So I thought I'd paint it with that ceramic paint I used on my mug garden project (update on that...it's going great! One succulent died. That's when I realized I'd forgotten to water them for a while...oops), but the other 3, including the bamboo, are thriving. I got out my light blue and started painting away. After 2 coats of paint, and not enough paint left in the bottle for a third coat, the canister looked like this:

That wasn't going to cut it. I just couldn't get the paint smooth with any kind of brush/sponge, and there wasn't enough paint to give it a thick enough coat that the original color didn't show through. So...that idea had to be scrapped. Luckily that paint washes off super easy before you bake it so I was able to just wash off the blue paint and restore the ceramic back to the gold/brown it originally was. 

But that left me still with an unfinished project, and I was bound and determined to make this one work somehow. I rummaged through my art supplies and found a 5x7 scratchboard that I hadn't used yet and decided that was it. So I got on the computer and played with fonts until I found what I wanted. I ended up with this "picture":

I printed it, covered the back in graphite, taped it to my scratchboard, and used a pencil to trace the letters and transfer the graphite to the scratchboard. Then I scratched away and this is what I ended up with:

I figured since it looks chalkboard-ish I'd put it by the awesome chalkboard piggy Em and Camille got me for my Birthday. And, it's right at the entryway to my kitchen which is where some of my least favorite chores happen (and I carry the laundry through there to get to the utility room...so I'll see it when I do laundry too). Plus, it helps hide our internet box, so that's happy too!

Pin Report #8

http://theseamery.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/fit-to-a-t-baby-romper-tutorial-part-2-making-the-pattern-and-cutting/

I went through my t-shirts, picked out the 5 I wanted to use, and came in eagerly to read the directions before jumping into this project. As the only garment of clothing I've ever made is a simple skirt, I wasn't sure what some of the terms meant and, I'll be honest, I was a little intimidated by the tutorial. So I looked around on Pinterest and found a similar idea that seemed much more along my confidence lines (perhaps doing one of these more simple patterns will give me the confidence to try this romper pattern). 

So, here's the pin that I switched to:

http://thismamamakesstuff.com/tutorial-rockin-baby-gown-t-shirt-refashion/

Their instructions were decently easy to follow, just pay attention to the words and the pictures. Here's what I ended up with after about 2 hours of work on it. That includes printing the pattern, cutting the fabric, sewing, a snack break, and running back and forth between the dining room table where my sewing stuff was set up and the living room where the computer is to read the directions. Now that I know how it works I'm sure these'll be super quick and easy to pump out. 

Pin Report #9

http://askannamoseley.com/2012/02/getting-rid-of-that-boy-smell-in-the-bathroom/

Well, I did this. My bathroom doesn't smell lemony at all. It just now smells like vinegar and pee. Maybe I'm missing somewhere else where the pee smell is coming from? I scrubbed the toilet, I got the floor all around the toilet. I got the wall/cabinet by the toilet. And I still just smell pee. Where else could little girls get pee?!

Someone commented on my Mix-It-Up Monday post when I said I was going to do this that "Lemon juice and vinegar are both acids, so soda should fizzle when you mix it with the lemon juice; when the reaction is finished, there is no way for it to re-fizzle when you add more acid." The baking soda did fizzle when I added the lemon juice, but I was able to get it into a pancake batter-esque consistency, so I figured I'd just keep going. I let it sit for the 15 minutes it required, and then sprayed vinegar on it. It did fizzle again when I sprayed the vinegar on, so there was enough soda left in the paste to still do the work with the vinegar. But my bathroom still smells like pee. Either this didn't work or I've got some other pee problem area. Blech. 

Pin Report #10

http://www.thecampuscompanion.com/party-lab/2011/10/21/aurora-drink/#.UjdiOcaTiqg

I'm sure this is the one you've been waiting for. And I saved it for last, bwahahahaha. We had some nasty-gram comments (which we didn't publish because of the profanity content, as the disclaimer in our comment box says) saying we were dumb for thinking that galaxies would show up. I know the galaxies are photoshopped into the picture. But that's part of what we're showing. The directions of the pin do say this though: "it is a drink that is pink in natural light, but glows aqua-marine in black-light." So, the idea of testing this pin was to show that, yes, the galaxies are shopped in, and to see if the color change happens with the pinned caption containing the non-alcoholic drink (someone else will have to test the alcoholic version). 

I mixed up the drink (doing 1/9th of the recipe because it's just the two of us and if it was nasty I didn't want to have gallons of this on hand). So what did we find out? 

The mixed up drink under normal light:

Pretty and delicious looking!

The mixed up drink under a black light:

No galaxies. No aqua-marine glow. 

The taste? Kinda weird. Not one we'll be remaking. 

So I don't know if we need a more powerful or high-tech black light, if it was the non-alcoholic version that just didn't work, or if this never actually works...but it definitely didn't work for us. 


So there you have it! My 10-Pin Report. I actually didn't know if I'd get through all of them, so I'm feeling rather proud of myself right now. It helped that I knew I was going to have to report to you all...so thanks for that pressure! I hope you all have a great final September weekend! Hooray for Fall!!

Show and Tell Saturday: Productivity

For today's Show and Tell Saturday post I have something slightly different from our normal Show and Tell posts for you. I don't have one big project that I did for this...it's a series of small projects, tips, and methods. Yesterday (Friday) was the first day I have had at home for a while with all my running around. The house was in desperate need of a slick up. There's organizing to do to get ready for Merle in 3 months. Dishes were stacked up. Now that the rains have finally come, the yard needs some care and the garden needs some de-weeding. There was a huge list of things that needed to be done, and I just didn't want to face it. There are projects I want to do, blankets I want to finish sewing/crocheting, meals I want to cook, books I want to read, and pictures I want to take. I couldn't justify blowing off the house and yard to do fun things, but I didn't want to spend my whole day cleaning either. So I decided to try out something I remember my mom doing with us as kids. She would set the timer for 15 minutes and we'd have to be busy working for the entire 15 minutes. After the 15 work minutes were up we got a reward 15-20 minutes. We could read, watch TV, play, or do whatever we wanted in that time. When the reward time was up, the timer was set again and we were all busy working for another 15 minutes. This seemed like something I could face. It would get me cleaning, but I could also do some of these smaller projects I want to do. I did this yesterday starting at 11 am and kept up until 5 (when I had to get ready to drive some of my girls from church to a big dance in the "neighboring" town). I'm still working on this today, but I thought I'd show you what I got done yesterday and how this worked. It really helped me to stay productive and motivated.

First, I started off with my Cleaning Soundtrack. This is a playlist I have on Windows Media Player that I only turn on when I'm cleaning. This helps me jump start my brain into cleaning mode. The songs are all upbeat and fun and help me to feel happier while I clean. You can find that list by clicking here. 

Once I got my music going I jumped in. I didn't set a specific time period for my reward times, but I tried to keep them around 15-20 minutes. Depending on what I did some were shorter and some were longer. I did keep my working minutes to 15 though. You really can get a lot more done in 15 minutes than you'd think. For example, here's how a portion of my day went:

15 Work Minutes: Cleaned off Kitchen counters and stacked dishes. Put all shoes by the front door in closet. Started a load of laundry. Cleaned off the table. Straightened bathroom counter. 

Reward Time: Recovered and decorated a small notebook I had laying around to be our Gift Log for Merle (we still haven't come up with a name for him, but we're not too worried...one will come. I think we'll call him Merle online though even after he's born).
Before:

The nice camera has a dead battery, so you get the not so nice camera photo...but you get the picture.

After:

It's brown...not purplish-reddish-brown...and the stickers are a light blue. Again, cheapo camera. Next time I'll get a better point and shoot and not the cheapest one. 

Work of art? No. Functional and less girly? Yes. Now I have somewhere to keep track of things we receive for Merle and I can get Thank You cards lined up easier.

15 Work Minutes: Switched Laundry. Folded huge pile of clothes at the foot of the bed. 

Okay, I can't resist doing a small infomercial here (of my own free will and volition...not sponsored in any way shape or form). I bought a new laundry hamper a few months ago and it has made laundry so much easier. That sounds dumb, I know. Before we just had one large plastic hamper that we stuffed everything into/around. When laundry time came we had to pull everything out of the hamper and sort it into piles (whites/colors/jeans/towels) and then those dirty piles sat around for a while until they got done. In the process of hauling out dirty piles and bringing in clean piles sometimes piles got mixed up and we'd have clean and dirty clothes all together again and we'd have to sort it out (smell checks, ew). While perusing Walmart one day I found this hamper and bought it (I think I bought it for around $25...which seemed crazy at the time, but it's totally worth it in my books):

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Better-Homes-and-Gardens-4-Bin-Laundry-Sorter/22002730

Now at the end of the day our clothes go into the designated bag (we do jeans, whites, colors, and towels). The bags looked small at first, but they hold just the right amount for a load of laundry. The bags come off the frame easy so I just haul it down the hall, dump it in the washer, and haul the empty bag back. No sorting through stinky clothes. No piles of dirty clothes on the floor. Easy hauling. And it makes it so easy to see when it's time to do a load (since we fill up some bags faster than others). I feel a little dumb for being so excited about a laundry hamper, but this one has helped us out a ton! Okay, infomercial done. 

Reward Time: Did a round on a blanket I'm crocheting:

15 Work Minutes: Restarted the dryer (ours takes two cycles to dry a load). Edited pictures (I really hate editing pictures, so I knew I wouldn't choose to do that during my reward minutes so I did it during my work minutes).

Reward Time: Started this post.

15 Work Minutes: Switched laundry. Folded Laundry. Put away laundry.

Reward Time: Typed up my Cleaning Soundtrack and started linking songs to the Amazon MP3 database.

30 Work Minutes: (I found that as I went along I wanted the 15 minutes of work time to last longer. So I gave myself a double work period before a break)  2 sink-fulls of dishes. Put away laundry. Sorted through my closet and dresser to pull out my "normal" clothes and replace with "maternity" clothes. I don't have room for 2 different wardrobes to hang up at the same time, so I came up with a method that is working so far. I have a box in the corner of our room behind the recliner where I put my normal clothes when they quit fitting or when I want to put a favorite article away so I'm sure I'm not tempted to wear it too long and stretch it out. This way I clear out space in my closet and drawers for the maternity clothes, and then I'm not staring at my normal clothes and wishing I could still wear them. Out of sight, somewhat out of mind? That's the idea at least. Then when I'm ready to pull the box back out it'll be like Christmas in (insert month I fit back in them here). Luckily right when we found out I was pregnant I went through my wardrobe and cleared out the items I hadn't worn in a while and didn't want, so I'm not storing a bunch of things I'll never wear again in that box.

Reward Time: Ate a handful of White Chocolate Chips from the bag in the freezer...sssshhhhhhh, don't tell I snitched some (it's reward time, right?!) while I went through this past year's projects and photos to start picking out County Fair possibilities (yet another use for Pinterest! I can pin all my favorites and have them all in one place to go through for later when it comes time to narrow them down to the ones I want to enter). If you've never participated in your county's County Fair, you should! It's never too late. Don't enter with the point of trying to win. Just enter to enter! Enter to give you motivation to make/bake something. It's a lot of fun and such a good American Tradition! 

15 Work Minutes: I worked on our bathroom, and tested this pin:

 I'm not going to lie...I didn't think it'd work, sounded fishy to me. I was pretty sure it wasn't going to scour off the hard water ring magically, and I half expected a toilet volcano of foam. But it sounded like a simple one to try. If it worked, great! If it didn't, Pinstrosity fodder!

Well, I could show you before and after pictures...but I won't. I'll post my face all over with goofy expressions or double chins...but posting a picture of my toilet just seems like crossing some sort of social line that I'm not ready for (and it's not even a disgusting toilet). So I found someone else who posted a picture of their toilet and its hard water ring. This is pretty much what my toilet looked like before AND after the "treatment":

http://heathersdrivelandwhatnot.blogspot.com/2010/06/wfmw-getting-rid-of-those-horrid-hard.html

I didn't have the toilet volcano like I worried about...but it didn't do anything about the hard water ring at the same time (and I tried scrubbing it with the brush again after the bubbles died down). So don't bother with that pin, it's a dud. I knew it was too easy. But now my toilet is super clean...bacterially speaking at least. I'm gonna just have to buckle down and get a pumice stone or a drywall screen (as the site hosting the above toilet picture suggests and shows). I'm calling it a GCT Level 4 as it didn't do what the pin said it would at all, but it wasn't a disaster...just a pin that doesn't work.

So there you have it. My super exciting day yesterday. I'm sure you're all jealous of how much fun I had. Okay, I know...it really wasn't a bad day, and I did get a lot done. Hopefully today will be just as productive (or more so) than yesterday. What do you do to get motivated to stay busy during the day?

Exploding Casseroles

There are good explosions and bad explosions in life. Watching fireworks explode in the sky on the 4th of July: good explosions. Watching fireworks tip over and shoot at you: bad explosions. Carrying in your baby and having explosions of oohs and ahhs at the cuteness thereof: good explosions. Carrying in your baby in one arm and Mexican food in the other, only to set them down to find guacamole had leaked down your arm so you lick it off only to realize that's the arm that carried in your baby: bad explosion. Taking a bite of dinner and having an explosion of awesome flavor hit your mouth: good explosion. Having your dinner blow up before it can reach your mouth: bad explosion. 

Today's Pinstrosity goes right along with that last explosion. 

The Original Pin:

http://www.baked-in.com/2013/02/06/mexican-baked-spaghetti-squash/

Kristen found the delectable dish on Pinterest and knew that had to go on her dinner menu. "It looked amazing!  I added extra veg, extra beans, and a little wheat spaghetti to make it last us longer.  It was all done and smelled great, so I took it out of the stove and set it on my stove top (which is where I usually let my dishes cool)."

This point in dinner is always tantalizing. You're getting the last touches of dinner ready. Your horde is clamoring to be fed and can smell the goodness they are about to launch into. You're so proud of yourself for actually cooking that night and having dinner ready. And then...

"I heard this massive explosion (literally, it sounded like a small bomb) and went into the kitchen to find that the glass dish had shattered into a zillion pieces.  I briefly hoped that I might salvage some of our dinner before realizing that the biggest piece of remaining glass in the whole thing was about the size of my palm.  Other than that, mostly shards of quarter-size glass were everywhere."

"So much food waste.  So much sadness. So much cleaning."

What can cause your dinner to explode, you ask? We'll tell you...but first one more story. Sadly, I've had this exact same experience. Well...I was making No-Flip-Oven Pancakes so not the exact experience...but close. 

It was the night before mine and Cameron's road trip to Mississippi. We were up late packing and trying to get last minute stuff done. We hadn't had much dinner and there was some milk and eggs in the fridge that needed to be used up before we left, so I decided to put together No-Flip-Oven Pancakes (aka German Pancakes). I mixed it up, put it in the oven and went back to packing. Finally the timer yelled at us that dinner was done, but I was right in the middle of loading something, so I pulled the pan out of the oven and set it on the stove to cool while I finished that last errand I was working on. Not much longer after that smoke is pouring from the pan. I grab a hot pad, move the pan off the stove and we stand back in despair, looking at our smoldering dinner. Suddenly the pan exploded. It was loud! Shards of glass went everywhere. Luckily the side of the pan facing us stayed intact...we were just a few feet from the pan when it exploded and had the whole pan exploded we would have likely had shards of glass in our gut. There were glass shards and bits of dinner all over the place. And to boot, our house now smelled like burned eggs. Mmmmm.

Anyone guess what the problem is with both of these stories? A hot burner. For some reason one of the burners was on and Kristen and I both ended up setting our dinners (baked in glass pyrex pans) on the one hot burner. I still don't know why a burner was on with our stove...but it was. It shook us up pretty good, the experience could have been so bad. With Kristen's pan, I'm glad no one was in the kitchen as her whole pan exploded into flying shards of dinner death. 

Lessons learned:

• Don't set the pans on the stove to cool. Just don't get in that habit. I know, it's easy. We're trying to break ourselves of the habit and it's hard. Take the extra second and counter space to pull out a hot pad and set the pan there. Then you know you'll never set anything on a burner that was left on by accident. 
• Remember to turn off the burners when you're done using them. Everyone forgets every now and then...it does happen. Since the exploding dinner episode though I'm way more careful about checking to make sure everything is turned off when I'm done using it. 

I hope everyone had a great Monday yesterday (I got to go visit my parents, brother, and grandparents...so I had a lovely day). Happy Tuesday everyone...you made it one day further. Give yourself a pat on the back. 

Lessons Learned Through Pinstrosities

Most of us have learned valuable lessons through Pinterest and our Pinstrosities. 

Kelli learned that these 2-ingredient lemon bars need a pan bigger than a 9x13:

Shannon learned that this "17 Ways to Never Have a Bad Hair Day Again" list needs a different name:

Amy learned not to walk down the street on a hot day to deliver banana split bites to a neighbor:

I think the bananas needed to be a little shorter too...

Abigail learned that the tip she saw on Pinterest about substituting mayo for eggs doesn't work in every recipe:

And Rachael learned that not all "DIY Cleaners" pins on Pinterest are safe:

"My name is Rachael and I am a military wife living in Georgia. My husband is currently deployed and I am a stay at home mom for the time being so I am a huge pinterest lover. Well, most of my projects come out great! However, last night I rescued a chihuahua from a really bad situation and after bathing it and putting it in the kitchen with my other dog I realized it had worms (icky) so I decided even though it was 2 am, I needed to disinfect my kitchen floor and separate the dogs. I had pinned a post for super disinfectant mop solution some time ago so I decided to pull it up. The recipe called for a gallon of water 1 cup of vinegar, 1 cup of bleach, and 2 tbsp of dawn dish soap. Excited to try this new thing I got out my mop bucket, products and mixing cups. I poured it all in the bucket and as soon as I added the bleach, a white cloud of chemicals started rising out of my mop bucket. I freaked and went to move my dogs out of the way and she knocked over the bucket. So I sopped it all up and proceeded to call poison control because my eyes were burning and some got on my feet and it was burning and my whole house had an awful smell. I was told to open all the windows in my home, run fans and get myself and the two dogs and my toddler out of the house immediately. By this time is was three am. I woke up my two year old and me and the two dogs and her sat outside from 3-4 am in the freezing cold waiting for the fumes to dissipate. I tried to find the pin to attach it, but it has been deleted due to my actions of reporting it! My family got a good laugh and I'm trying to find the humor in the awful night, lol. I love your site and blog. Thanks for bringing lots of smiles to my face during the hard third deployment."

And then sometimes we have lessons that we learn completely free and clear of Pinterest. They end up being more of Lifestrosities. We had a recent one in our house. I had a huge chunk of work to do one week and was barely staying afloat, so my sweet husband worked on cleaning the house for me. I was in the zone and not paying much attention as he was straightening the kitchen and loading the dishwasher. It wasn't until I saw something white moving across the floor than I looked over and chuckled. 

Cameron learned that when you're out of dishwasher detergent...you can't pour in regular dish soap. 

Teehee...he hadn't noticed yet. I grabbed the camera and snapped a photo just before he turned and discovered the adventure pouring out of the dishwasher. Poor guy had no idea this would happen. Here he was thinking he was the most awesome husband in the world as he cleaned the kitchen and rocked out to The Pogues, only to look up and discover the never ending spew of bubbles. So what do you do at this point? You mop. And Mop. And Mop. And Mop. Our floor is cleaner than it's been in a long time! 

It took 3 full runs of the dishwasher before it quit looking like this inside:

We laughed about this all day. And that brings me to my final "lesson learned" of the day. Don't let these "life lessons" (be they Pinstrosities or Lifestrosities) get you mad or down. Life is too full of stress and dumb things to be mad all the time. I'm glad we have the bubble mess as a funny memory to look back on rather than one where we got mad and made a huge deal over nothing. Life happens. There will be ups and downs. Just breathe (well...unless you're Rachael...then breathe once you're out of the fuming house), smile, take a picture, and try to find something funny or good about the situation. As Eleanor Hodgman Porter wrote in her book Polyanna, "You see, when you're hunting for the glad things, you sort of forget the other kind." Find the glad in life. It'll make thing much more bearable. 

DIY Room Scents

I have a sweet friend who spent a year in Tennessee with her husband as a missionary couple. When they returned home she brought me the cutest little miniature cast iron skillet. I loved it instantly. It took me a little while to decide how to use it, but I finally went out and bought me a candle warmer and the little scented wax blocks from Wally world. I now have my own mini-cast iron skillet knock-off Scentsy warmer. I love how it makes the house smell. Granted...I'm still using the blocks I bought at Christmas so it smells like Christmas here still instead of spring, but oh well. 

While I love my cast iron skillet set up, I still like to put it away some days and go for a more "natural" approach. Today's post is all about that. I'll start first with a Pinstrosity we were sent, and then I'll show you what I like to do to get the house smelling good. 

Julie found a pin for DIY Scented Plugins that don't use all the chemicals. 

The Original Pin:

http://holycrickey.tumblr.com/post/7394307755/diy-wallflowers-scented-plugin

Julie says, "I was excited when I saw this post! The refills for the Airwick air freshener I use in my laundry room (and cat litter box room) are expensive and they don't last very long (even on the lowest setting). Today I finally made it to Michaels and the essential oils were all on sale! So I bought two and rushed home to refill the vial."

"I immediately ran into a significant problem.  I could not remove the top from the bottle! I tried and tried. Then, I just gave a small tug to the wick and it came right out. I thought I had won!! I rinsed the bottle, filled it part of the way with lavender oil added water then gently tried to put the wick back in. No going..."

The Pinstrosity:

The original site says to "remove the wick part (which ironically looks like a cigarette) empty and rinse out the bulb", but they don't give any tips for getting the wick out without mangling it. Perhaps the difficulty is due to the difference in brand of plugin air freshener? Who knows. 

"It just puffed out and collapsed."

"That is not going back into the top of the bottle! I tried again to remove the bottle top but only succeeded in getting oil all over my hands. I'm not sure if the wick is really necessary because I improvised and twisted a piece of paper towel tightly and used that instead... I might even remove it."

"It seems to be working... But, the scent of lavender is overwhelming!! It's making my eyes itchy. I hope the cats won't refuse to come in and use their litter box because of this!!"

While the paper towel definitely does wick the oils up into the air, it probably does so at a much faster rate than the original wick would. But, if you can't get the original wick out with out it becoming unusable, then  you definitely have run into a problem. From the looks of it the whole top needs to be removed, but these have been designed to be pretty snug and stuck. By getting out the entire plastic top piece, you should be able to keep the wick intact. But now...how do we get that pesky plastic piece out. For jobs like this, I usually grab a few butter knives and use them to pry the top of little by little...but that doesn't always work. 

So, if you can get the wick out and in again, this is a great way to get your house smelling good using safe and clean oils. What if you don't have the oils or the plugin? Here are some pins I have used and I love them!

The Williams Sonoma Store Spring Scent (this one is seriously so good, I love it!):

http://morganmoore.typepad.com/one_more_moore/2010/03/spring-is-here.html#comment-6a00d8341c51ba53ef0120a9772f44970b

How to come up with your own Natural Room Scents:

http://www.theyummylife.com/Natural_Room_Scents

Citrus Scents (add cinnamon for fall, vanilla for spring and summer, herbs for any time of year):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/annnmarie/4125096686/sizes/z/in/photostream/

And a whole slew of Autumn Recipes:

http://jandeecrafts.blogspot.com/2010/12/11-homemade-simmer-potstove-potpourri.html

Around Christmas time my mom always put a pot on the stove to simmer. She would add in various extracts and herbs depending on what she wanted. Some days we'd have a maple smell drifting from the kitchen. Other days we'd have the smell cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves filling the house. Other days we'd have herbs and vanilla for a real subtle but soothing smell. As far as getting a good smell, these are hard to mess up. The main thing that can go wrong is letting your pot get dry as all the water steams out. Keep an eye on it and add water as needed.