DIY Carpet Cleaner

Sparkling floors make me feel put together. In honor of spring, I decided I wanted to tackle my dirty carpets. I vacuum about twice a week, but the traffic areas in our home had been discolored and matted beyond the abilities of my vacuum. 

I looked into professional cleaners and renting a carpet cleaning unit from Walmart. All of the options seemed pricey and beyond the amount I was prepared to invest into a home that I rent. I decided that this was totally something I could figure out how to do on my own. I started by mixing warm water, hydrogen peroxide, and dish soap. 

I also filled a bowl with warm water for rinsing. 

This bowl was also perfect for keeping my toddler busy while I scrubbed. As you may have noticed in the picture of my soapy bowl, I used a white scrub brush to scrub the the soapy mixture into the carpet. This mixture worked ok on the dingy spots in my carpet but once I arrived at the worst spot, I needed stronger reinforcements. I added my secret cleaning ingredient OxiClean and I was amazed with the results. 

Make sure to put some elbow grease into it. I scrubbed the trouble spot and left one lone area uncleaned so that you can see the difference. 

I would highly recommend adding OxiClean to your cleaning products. I literally use it for everything. When it comes to baby stains in clothing there is no comparison. I also add it to every load of laundry to brighten my colors and whites alike. It works on patio furniture, grout, carpets, upholstery, and more. I love that I don't have to keep a million different cleaners around because this one product does the job of about 6 cleaners. Happy spring cleaning! 

Deep Clean Your Bathroom with 3 Household Products

I already admitted my love to deep clean, so now you get to hear all about it for awhile!

A couple years ago I started to hear about cleaning your house with natural products. I was drawn in by the fact that it would save me from having to buy expensive cleaners anymore, loved the fact that I wouldn't have to worry about my toddler getting into my cleaning supplies and getting sick, and the fact that it would limit our family's exposure to harsh chemicals was like icing on the cake. I was sold! Fast forward three years, and I do almost all my cleaning with vinegar and baking soda. When I'm deep cleaning, I still love a little bleach to help whiten things up. These are my three go-to products for deep cleaning the bathroom.

It's easy and cost-effective, need I say more?!

I start by doing my regular cleaning with my vinegar-and-water spray bottle and pin-pointing any spots that might need a little extra help. Then, I bust out the baking soda and my cleaning brushes.

I love my giant bag of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda, because I never have to worry about it running out!

I pour some baking soda in a cup, wet my cleaning brush(which is actually a dollar store toothbrush), dip it in the baking soda, and start to scrub. I love how easy the toothbrush makes it to get into the little crevices around the faucet and drain. I just scrub the spots that I think need some extra help. You can scrub the paste on and leave it for awhile before you wipe it off, or you can scrub it right off if it's not very bad.

In my bathtub this time I had some red algae that's been giving me troubles and some soap scum. Can you see the red streak down the wall? Gross!

To loosen up that scum and algae, I sprayed on my magic cleaner and let it sit for awhile. I'll tell you all about my magic cleaner in a future post, so stay tuned! ;)

Then I used a bigger scrub brush for the tub, sprinkled the baking soda right on it after I got it wet, and started scrubbing.

The soap scum came right off and shined right up!

The algae needed a little extra convincing...

This is where my good friend Bleach came in. I grabbed a bowl, a roll of paper towels, and headed for the bathroom.

I love my select-a-size paper towels for this, they're the perfect size!

I poured some bleach into the bowl, tore five or six sheets of paper towels, and put them in the bowl, too. After they soaked full of bleach, I pulled them out one-at-a-time and placed them on the problem areas in the tub. This time I used them around the edge of the tub, but I've also used them down in the bottom of the tub and they whitened it up great, as well.

Next, I just left them there for about 20 minutes. Don't forget to leave the fan going so the smell isn't too strong when you go back in!

When I went back in, I pulled them off, threw them away, and ta-da, all white again!

Now I can move that slip of paper into the Ta-Done Jar!

DIY Gallery Wall

A new apartment means making my decor fit a new area. When I unpacked my pictures, shelves, and random decorating items, I realized I wanted a different look this time. We have lived in a lot of apartments in our 3 years of marriage (8 apartments) and I feel like my decorating style never varies a whole lot. Well, I am changing that! I went to my handy dandy Pinterest boards and I chose a style that I really love. In an effort to keep this change affordable, I used most of the items I already had and gave them a different look. My new apartment (like most) has a focal wall that is obvious upon walking through the front door. I decided I wanted to create a gallery wall there. I wanted to include some religious documents, family pictures, and trendy art work in a cohesive manner, to make a fresh, modern, gallery wall! By the end of this project it was apparent to me that the trendy art really drew it all together. I purchased a set of gallery wall prints that had matching color schemes and foil. The set was super affordable and it will make your gallery wall go from ok to awesome! 

Now, usually religious documents and family pictures tend to get little attention in the average wall arrangement and I wanted to change that. So, I incorporated the documents and photos into my gallery wall using the same color scheme and style as the rest of my art work. You will notice that I added some embellishments to my documents and matted them in the same way as the rest of my art.

This made them look great with my other things!

Like I said, I wanted to keep this affordable so I picked up about 5 frames from the thrift store (ranging from $0.75-$2.00) and used some of the frames I already had. I picked up 3 fresh bottles of acrylic paint and went to work. 

After painting all of my once-ugly-frames, I became pretty excited about how they turned out and I couldn't wait to finish the project. I put some of my trendy art work in a few of them and I could see things coming together! 

In order to make them look like a cohesive set, I chose a few gold frames from the thrift store and also painted a couple of the wood ones in coordinating colors. Choosing a color scheme is important in order to make your gallery wall work. I chose light grey, gold, charcoal, cactus green, and a dark wood stain. All in all I used 10 frames. The pictures that I matted I matted all in white. Once again, I did this to help my pictures look like a set.

Once your pictures, documents, and art are all matted, framed, and set, it's time to hang them. I set my pictures close together because that was the look I wanted, but you can set them as far apart as you like. I laid mine out on my bed before I hung them to decide how they best fit together. Once I found an order I liked, I traced each picture onto wrapping paper and cut the shape out. Then I took the wrapping paper shapes and tapped them on the wall in the order I had chosen. I used a level to make sure each paper was straight on the wall. I hammered a nail in the center top area of each paper, then I tore the paper down and hung my frames on their now-ready-nails!

Once you are finished, enjoy your new gallery wall!   

To-Do List Jars

Each year I can't help but get a little excited as Spring Cleaning approaches. While I admit that I don't love the actual cleaning process, I do love the great feeling of a spotless house! This year I'm getting started a little early since we have guests coming next month and I want everything to be spotless when they come!

A couple years ago, I was having a hard time finding the motivation to get started with my Spring Cleaning, so I came up with the "To-Do List Jars" to shake things up a bit. I've used them every year since then, and love them.

The idea is that whenever I have a minute I pop open the "To-Do" jar, pick out a task, complete it, and put it in the "Ta-Done" jar. It's a surprise every time and mixes up the fun and not-so-fun tasks. Plus, I get to watch the "To-Do" jar slowly empty while the "Ta-Done" jar fills up!

If you'd like to try some of your own, here's how I did it...

1. Pick out two small jars. I used baby food jars since there seems to be a plethora kicking around my kitchen at the moment, but you could use any size or shape you'd like. They don't need to be very big since the slips of paper don't take up very much room.

2. Paint the lids. This step is optional if your jars have plain lids, but I wanted mine to be a cute springy color. I used acrylic paint and two coats covered the lids nicely.

Tip: You'll need two small stands to put them on while they dry. Two thimbles would work great, or two soda pop tops. I used the lids from two bottles of body spray since that's what I had around and they worked well.

3. Make your list. I used a table in a word processor to type up my list in a format that could easily be printed out and cut into strips. You could simply write your list out and cut it into strips. I printed mine on some cute yellow paper to add some color to my jars. You could use card stock, fabric, little discs, etc. to personalize it.

4. Cut your list out. Make sure the slips are small enough to fit easily through the openings of your jars.

5. Make the labels. Be creative on this step. You can keep it simple with paper, markers, and glue like I did, or you could go crazy-crafty. Have fun and make sure to make it something you don't mind having out on your counter.

6. Attach the labels. I used some Tacky Glue for crafting and they adhered to the glass perfectly. I LOVE Tacky Glue and try to always have a bottle on hand when I'm crafting! It works for almost everything crafty and lasts FOREVER! Seriously, if you haven't tried it before, you should go pick some up... like right now... what are you waiting for?! Anyway...

7. Get to cleaning! Now that you have some extra motivation, pick out your first slip and get to work on your to-do list!

P.S. You could use these for any sort of To-Do List you have. Daily tasks? Ta-Done! Long-term tasks? Ta-Done! So many possibilities...

Heart Bunting

As Valentines Day approaches I get in the mood for lace-trimmed, red paper projects that make my home feel festive. Right now bunting is trending and although I don't let tends run my style preference, I think bunting is super cute. If you are not familiar with the term "bunting," this refers to the triangle flags that you have seen crowding Pinterest. In honor of heart day, I decided to make a bunting out of paper hearts. Something you should know about me, I have a passion for the paper aisle at any craft store. This project is fun because you can use the paper you have at home or you can go to the craft store and buy a few of the new Valentine season's paper designs. (So stinking fun!)

This project is super easy, it takes 3 easy steps and "tada!" your heart bunting is ready for your mantle, window, entertainment center, or wherever! So here we go!

1. Cut the hearts out of various types of paper designs and solids that look good together. (I cut one heart shape that I liked and then traced it for all of the other hearts.)

2: Punch two holes in each heart near the top in order to string them. 

3. Weave a string in and out of each heart.

How cute and easy is that? Enjoy!

Yellow Split Pea Curry

Back when my husband was working on his Master's Degree and we were living in a cute little one-bedroom apartment, I became the Queen of Dry Beans. Not a very attractive title, I know, but it did fit. Our budget was very tight, so I cut most meat out of our menu and replaced it with beans to save money at the grocery store. If my friends had extra dry beans, they kindly gave them to me, and we used them! We went through about 6 lbs. of dry beans a month. While we don't eat dry beans that often anymore, I still keep them in the menu at least once a week. They're healthy and budget-friendly and we still love them!

I didn't come up with this recipe during that time, but that is when I became really good at cooking dry beans. Believe me, they're not as hard as they might seem at first sight. Haha!

Yellow Split Pea Curry

Prep Time: 20 min.

Cook Time: 30 min.

Yield 8 Servings

1 lb. Beef steak or your preferred meat (optional), sliced into bite-sized pieces 

1 C. Yellow Split Peas

4 C. Beef Broth

1/2 Head Cauliflower, Chopped

1 Yellow Onion, Chopped

1 Bell Pepper, any color, Sliced

1/2 Package White Button Mushrooms, Sliced

1/2 Package Sugar Snap Peas

1 Can Bamboo Shoots

1 Bottle Thai Yellow Curry
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and sort yellow split peas. Put split peas and broth in a small pot and boil for 30 min., or until split peas are tender. Meanwhile, saute beef in a deep saute pan over medium heat, salt and pepper to taste. Once browned, remove beef  from pan and set aside, leaving drippings. Return pan to heat and add in cauliflower, onion, and bell pepper. Remove split peas from heat and drain off broth. Once vegetables are softened, add the meat, split peas, and remaining ingredients. Reduce heat and allow to simmer about 5 minutes or until reaches desired thickness. Serve over jasmine rice and enjoy!

Cranberry Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

You will love these delicious, chewy, perfect cookies. Make sure to follow all of the instructions and the next thing you know, you will be making these on demand regularly!

These cookies are soft, chewy and packed with flavor. Believe me when I say, there are a lot of bad cookie recipes out there. No one wants a puffy, dry, hard or puddley cookie. That is why when I find a good cookie recipe, I stick to it!! Enjoy the recipe and get in the mood for Valentines Day!! This cookie looks festive with its red cranberries and dark chips. They are perfect for whatever Valentine function you have coming up!

Cranberry Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2 1/4 c. Flour (leveled off)

1 tsp. Baking Soda

11/2 tsp. Corn Starch

1/2 tsp. Salt

3/4 c. Unsalted Butter

3/4 c. Brown Sugar

1/2 c. Granulated Sugar 

1Large Egg + Egg Yolk

2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 c. Chocolate Chips or Chunks

3/4 c. Cranberries
1/2 c. Walnuts (optional)
1/2 c. White Chocolate Chips(optional)

Instructions: 

1. Mix flour, baking soda, corn starch, and salt.

2. Separately mix MELTED butter, brown sugar, and granulated white sugar until there are no lumps. Whisk in the egg and yolk. Then add vanilla extract. 

3. Mix flour mixture with wet mixture. 

4. Mix in chocolate chunks (or chips), walnuts, and cranberries.

5. Cover and chill for 24hrs. (Or at least 8hrs.)

6. Take dough out and let soften for 10min. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll cookies into a cylinder shape. Make sure each cookie dough ball is taller rather than wider. 

Put 8 cookies on the cookie sheet if each cookie is about 3 tbs. Press a couple extra chocolate chips into the top of each cookie. 

Bake for 12 min. at 325 degrees. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet for 10 min. before removing. 

Enjoy!