Poor Richard's Almanac: Cleanliness is next to Godliness

On the Virtue of Cleanliness:

Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.

-Poor Richard's Almanack

Cleanliness is a luxury we cannot afford this week in my house. We seem more prone to filth of every kind. I woke up today to the scents of old trash, and other lovely things, as my kids have caught a fun little bug, and are sharing it amongst one another. But this was good timing! because THIS was ready:

I know. It looks like one of those formaldehyde jars from middle school science lab. But it's SO much more awesome.

It's a jar of vinegar soaked citrus peels. You simply fill a jar with peels (Any kind of citrus will do,) and fill it to the top with white distilled vinegar. Now leave it in the back of your pantry for a couple of weeks until it looks super gross, like the top pic. Now you have a lovely citrus scented vinegar ready to make the best homemade deodorizer/disinfectant ever. You will never have to buy the store bought stuff again. The cost? $0.12- $0.30 per bottle. Yep, I know. Awesome. It now holds a special place in this cheapskate's heart; right next to the Lavender Laundry Soap.

For a deodorizing/disinfecting room spray, dilute your citrus vinegar with water in a 1:1 ratio. Optionally, you can also add tea tree oil (which is really cheap at Wal Mart in the vitamin section. Wahoo!) Spray ALL OVER your house. Hard surfaces, soft surfaces, every room you watched a kid sneeze in. There are no nasty chemicals to worry about!

For a hard surface cleaner, dilute the citrus vinegar with water in a 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water ratio. Just spray on, leave a minute and wipe off.

For an All Purpose cleaner, you can use the hard surface cleaner, but I like to add a tablespoon of ammonia to the bottle and about 1/3 cup of rubbing alcohol. This makes it great for cleaning glass surfaces without streaking. 

If you want to see some scientific backing to all this, click here and check out all the studies on vinegar :)

Labels:

I like cleaning with cute products. I know that's dumb, but it motivates me. So here's a printable label for anyone who has the same cleaning issues that I do. I printed it on pre-sticky mailing labels you can pick up at Walmart. Avery 48126 to be exact.

Why not use just regular vinegar to keep your home clean? You CAN! But this smells better. A lot of people don't like the smell of vinegar, but when you use the citrus peel vinegar, it's much more mild, and then when it dries, the scent is gone, leaving behind a lovely orange citrus scent.

It beats the old trash, believe me. :)

Happy healthy days to you all!

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Alcott Autumn: A Piano for Beth

"Look there! Look there!" Beth did look, and turned pale with delight and surprise, for there stood a little cabinet piano, with a letter lying on the glossy lid, directed like a sign board to "Miss Elizabeth March."

"For me?" gasped Beth, holding onto Jo and feeling as if she should tumble down, it was such an overwhelming thing altogether. --------


"Miss March: "Dear Madam--" "How nice it sounds! I wish someone would write to me so!" said Amy, who thought the old-fashioned address very elegant.

"`I have had many pairs of slippers in my life, but I never had any that suited me so well as yours, '" continues Jo. "`Heartsease is my favorite flower, and these will always remind me of the gentle giver. I like to pay my debts, so I know you will allow `the old gentleman' to send you something which once belonged to the little grand daughter he lost. With hearty thanks and best wishes, I remain "`Your grateful friend and humble servant, "`JAMES LAURENCE' -------


Beth tried it, and everyone pronounced it the most remarkable piano ever heard. It had evidently been newly tuned and put in apple- pie order, but, perfect as it was, I think the real charm lay in the happiest of all happy faces which leaned over it, as Beth lovingly touched the beautiful black and white keys and pressed the bright pedals.

"You'll have to go and thank him," said Jo, by way of a joke, for the idea of the child's really going never entered her head.

-------
If you will believe me, she went and knocked at the study door before she gave herself time to think, and when a gruff voice called out, "come in!" she did go in, right up to Mr. Laurence, who looked quite taken aback, and held out her hand, saying, with only a small quaver in her voice, "I came to thank you, sir, for..." But she didn't finish, for he looked so friendly that she forgot her speech and, only remembering that he had lost the little girl he loved, she put both arms round his neck and kissed him.

If the roof of the house had suddenly flown off, the old gentleman wouldn't have been more astonished. But he liked it. Oh, dear, yes, he liked it amazingly! And was so touched and pleased by that confiding little kiss that all his crustiness vanished, and he just set her on his knee, and laid his wrinkled cheek against her rosy one, feeling as if he had got his own little grand daughter back again. Beth ceased to fear him from that moment, and sat there talking to him as cozily as if she had known him all her life, for love casts out fear, and gratitude can conquer pride.

-Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women"

I know, it's a long quote, but I couldn't pare it down any further. I love that chapter so much! In honor of Beth's love of the piano, I am sharing a recent piano makeover I did.

I am not a great pianist (Erika is, just FYI.)  But I truly love to play the piano. My parents and my poor piano teacher Gwen can rest assured that the 8 years of lessons at least paid off in happiness in my heart, even if they didn't pay off in any useful abilities.

My husband hates moving things. He mysteriously develops an illness whenever we have to move. We did it every 9 months of the first several years of marriage, and I began to see that pattern.

Pianos are not easy to move.

My husband has banned me from Craigslist.

Buuuuuuuuuuuut, after suckering family and friends into dragging this thing in and out of a pickup truck, a chalk paint makeover, and six months of piano music being played in our home, Hubby admits that he truly likes the piano! It's a Christmas miracle!

 Do you like that slurpee in the "before" pic? we like to class things up around here.

Here's the nitty gritty:

Homemade Chalk Paint

(Starting to understand the chalk paint obsession amongst bloggers. Awesome stuff- I didn't have to sand or prime or ANYTHING!!!)

Mix 1 cup latex paint to 1-2 tablespoons of Plaster of Paris

(I found it easier to just mix some water into the plaster first so it wouldn't form any clumps)

After mixing, paint on with a sponge roller, or brush (I just used a normal paintbrush)

and REPEAT. The first coat will be pretty light. A second coat is important. 

Sand to distress as desired. You can apply vaseline to edges before painting to make distressing easier, but I find it's not difficult to distress without it and I worry about using too much vaseline, so I was happy with this method.

Seal the job with Furniture wax if desired. 

I still haven't gotten around to waxing, but it is seriously durable stuff!

  Sanding is a piece of cake when you only have to do the edges!

 I added some plain hardware, although I am on the lookout for some crystal knobs :)

Christmas Music, here I come!!!

Framed here is a watercolor print of the Alcott family home, Orchard House. It was painted by May Alcott, the youngest sister of Louisa.

And that's my piano! I love it almost as much as Beth loved hers, even if I can't elicit the same beautiful music from mine :/ 

Have a lovely day!

Fall Poetry: Dressing Up a Chandelier

From "Autumn"

Autumn: Her dress is a net of mussels;
dark shelled, it covers up
summer’s weatherbeaten body.

So pull out your boots
and stand on an aged, wood floor
like an evergreen.

~ Mary Hamrick

My mother wouldn't let me pierce my ears until I was twelve years old.  

Tyrant. 

For years I resorted to parading around the house in her "clip-ons".  Wearing those plastic pearls and rhinestones made me feel like an eight-year-old Christy Brinkley---
without the hour-glass figure, long legs, and perfect teeth.  

For the first few minutes after putting those earrings on (along with her shiny gold heels and a misting of her l'Air de Temps perfume), everything was right with the world.  

But then I would feel my earlobes getting warmer and warmer and warmer until it felt as though lava was brewing beneath the clip-on clasp.  When I removed the rhinestones and pearls, I discovered red-hot welts on my skin where a REAL earring should have been.

Fast forward many earlobe-cattle-brandings later . . .

I have now been a card-carrying member of the pierced ear world for over two decades.  I even had a brief stint in college as a double-pierced-ear-rebel-kind-of-gal.  Gasp.

I love earrings, and they love me.

This may explain why I was looking at my chandelier this week and decided that it, too, needed some "earrings".

Here is what the chandelier looked like before.

There is nothing really wrong with it (if you're into that "Shriner's hat" look on your chandelier).

But then I saw these and knew my chandelier could be better.

I got these Christmas ornaments for 40% off the package price at a local craft store.  That meant I could give my entire chandelier a Christy Brinkleyish overhaul for under $4!

I used these supplies to start the makeover.

I then secured the "earrings" to the chandelier with the craft wire and trimmed the excess with the wire cutters.

5 minutes later, my chandelier looked like this.

I can't believe the difference a few sparkly bobbles can make on a light fixture.

Every time I look at my lovely light, I wonder two things:

1.  Why I didn't do this sooner?

2.  Where were these ornaments when I was 8-years-old?

They would have looked fantastic with a pair of shiny gold high heels.

P.S.  My mother finally took the plunge a few years ago and pierced her ears.  I guess even she got tired of "lava lobes."

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Huckleberry Finn: A 5-Minute Message Board

"When he wants to send any little common ordinary mysterious message . . . 

 he can write it on the bottom of a tin plate with a fork and throw it out of the window."

Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

Receiving and delivering messages around here is not our strong suit.  

When it comes to remembering and writing down information, my children have the attention spans of gnats.

But I'm at fault, too. 

I try to avoid listening to phone messages in the first place, much less writing them down.  I think it is my silent rebellion against the answering machine with its bossy flashing light telling me that there just might be something more important to attend to in my day than categorizing Pinterest boards.  

Pshaw.  As if.

But every time I see those cute fabric message boards with their crisscrossing ribbons and happy fabric, I wonder if there is a side to the message world that I haven't considered.

So this week I decided to swallow my pride, put my Pinterest boards on hold, and break out the glue gun. 

The only problem was that I literally had about five spare minutes to fiddle with this project.  I figured that if it was an utter disaster, I was only out 5 minutes, and I probably didn't need to organize my messages anyway.  Then again, if it was a smashing success, I had a completely legitimate reason for pinning my project (and 10,973 others while I was at it).

So off I went.

1. I removed the glass from an inexpensive 16x20 frame.  
2.  I then hot glued a rectangular scrap of quilt batting to the glass within 1/2 inch of the glass edges.  
3. I laid out a piece of fabric I had left over from my LAUNDRY ROOM MAKEOVER and placed the batting face down on the fabric.  
4. I pulled the fabric tight and glued it on the backside of the glass.  
5. I strung the ribbons across the fabric and hot glued them on the back of the glass as well.
6. Finally, I CAREFULLY placed the glass back in its frame, replaced the back, and hung it on the mudroom wall.

WARNING:  If you are thinking of turning one of your own frames into a message board, USE THE CARDBOARD BACKING AS YOUR BASE for your batting, fabric and ribbons INSTEAD OF THE GLASS.  The glass seemed like a good idea in the beginning, but I wouldn't do it again.  It is simply too fragile and nerve wracking to work with when you have a tight fitting frame, one minute left on your project timer, and children who are using your kitchen/craft space for races.

I was reluctant at first, but I am now a card-carrying member of the Message Board Society.

And no kidding, all it took was 5 minutes.

It's not perfect.  It could probably use more measuring, less ribbon, and some blingy medallions for the crisscrosses, but at least it is a step toward being responsible message takers around here.

Feel free to call me so we can talk about it.

But I must warn you, I'll probably let the machine get your phone call while I get these pictures up on Pinterest.

So leave me a message.

You never know . . .  it just might end up on the board.

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Huckleberry Finn: Laundry and Mud Room Remodel

"I clumb up the shed and crept into my window just before day was breaking. My new clothes was all greased up and clayey, and I was dog-tired.  Well, I got a good going-over in the morning from old Miss Watson on account of my clothes; but the widow she didn't scold, but only cleaned off the grease and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I would behave awhile if I could."

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Trouble spots.  I seem to have them everywhere---on my lawn, on my carpet, and on my body (like that pesky "spot" between my kneecaps and chin).

But I'm working on them.  I have fertilized the lawn, I have spotted the carpet, and today I let a neighbor talk me into going to a nearby playground/park to "work out."  I was envisioning a less-than-rigorous routine of going down slides, doing underdogs on the swings, and hanging from some monkey bars.  I mean, what else could you possibly do at a playground?

Well, you could do stair-steppers on park benches until your behind starts to spasm.

You could do lunges across the grass while the other mothers at the playground shield their children's eyes from the unpleasantness of it all.

Or you could do football squats, and silently compose your last will and testament as you anxiously wait to die.

You could do all those things.  And I did.  I have no weight loss to show for it, but I do have a terrific limp and whimper when climbing stairs now.

As bad as these trouble spots are, none of them compare to my home's largest trouble spot:  the laundry room/mud room.

How is it that the room where clothes go to be cleaned is always the dirtiest room in my house?  Forgive me as I give you a brief peek into our "mud room."  This was on a good day.  Don't judge.

Our shelf and bench system just wasn't working for us.  No one actually "sat" on the bench to take off their shoes.  Instead, they just "sat" their junk there.  And every time one of the kids needed a backpack or a baseball cap off of one of the hooks, I would find a pile of once-hanging items on the bench.  Argh.  

Never mind the fact that the laundry room is so sedate with its dark putty walls that I needed a can of caffeine to stay awake long enough to do a load of laundry.  (And you all know how much I love to do laundry.)

This has been our troubled story for the past seven years.  

Until this week.

Several night's ago I lay there awake trying to figure out how to make our laundry room/mud room functional for our family.  As I enumerated our needs in my mind, I realized how we could do it.  I shook my husband awake and told him the exciting news.  He wasn't nearly as excited as I thought he'd be.  

Go figure.

With a few hours of sleep under his belt, hubby caught the vision and we went gangbusters on our project.  

We had lots of help along the way with construction . . .

and painting . . .

And a few days later we had this to show for it . . .

With a happy new color scheme and loads of functionality, this space is finally meeting our needs.

We've "moved in" to the new room, and I couldn't be happier with the results.  The backpacks are organized, the hats have their own hooks, the shoes have a place to call their own, and I can finally fold laundry somewhere other than on a kitchen counter or couch.

One trouble spot down, 3.67 million to go.  Good luck with your own troublesome spots.

If you'd like to talk about them, come find me at the playground.  I'll be the one doing leg lifts by the tire swing.

Wall Color is Ivoire by Sherwin Williams
Door and Cabinet Color is Red Garnet by Better Homes and Gardens
Base Cabinets are from Ikea
Top Shelves/Closet Rod by Hubby
Valance Fabric is Waverly Ballad Bouquet from Joann's Fabrics

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A Midsummer Night's Dream: Fairy Tutu Dress

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time. 

-William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 5 Scene 1

I love these sweet little tutu dresses. I love how ethereal and fairy-like they are. Most of all, I love how they can make you forget that that you're on your 20th repeat of "Stay away from the water. Come back here. COME BACK. I am counting to three..." Now, if you are looking to make one of these, chances are that you have some experience with these little fairies I speak of, and you know exactly how this whole scenario goes, so...

...On to the Tutu dress!

These were SO easy to make! And I even took the difficult route by using the tulle that comes on a bolt instead of those cute little spools you can buy at the craft store. But this is how I did it:

Measure your munchkin from armpit to floor, and double that length. Cut 10 yards of bolt tulle into strips that are 8 inches wide by that measurement you just got. My little one's doubled measurement happened to thankfully be the with of the bolt fabric, so I just had to cut it into strips. No extra cutting necessary.
*If you are using the tulle that comes on a spool, your yardage is going to be anywhere from 100-400 yards depending on how full you want it and how tall your little lady is. 100 being about right for a toddler. Think along the lines of 100 yards per year of life*

For this Tutu Dress, I used 5 yards ivory and 5 yards of mint tulle.

Now take white elastic banding and measure around your munchkin's torso right at their armpits. Cut the band an inch or two smaller than that measurement, and sew one end to the other. You will have a big circle now.

(Reserve 2 strips of tulle) Take 2 strips of your tulle just layered together (I put one layer of each color together), and fold them in half, making an arch in the center. Put the center arch behind the elastic, and then pull the tails over the elastic, through the arch, and tighten. (Not too tight- get em all on there before you tighten really well, that way you can be sure they are evenly spaced)

Now if you'd like to cover the elastic that is still peeking out, take a ribbon, and tack it at one spot on the elastic. Then wrap it over the adjacent knot, and back up, over the adjacent knot, and back up, etc., etc. until you get all the way around, and tie a bow. (See here if that confuses you) Save the rest of your ribbon to cinch the empire waistline once the dress is on your little sprite.

Now put the dress on that little lady, cinch that waistline, and take your reserved pieces of tulle- put them on top of one another. Wrap them from the back of the right shoulder to the front of the right shoulder (Threading them under the elastic band- these are your arm straps) over the back of the neck to the front of the left shoulder, and to the back of the left shoulder. Then tie in the back and you have arm straps and a little halter. You could opt to sew these into place, but I am lazy and this works great. So there :)

Now jump for joy! You did it!

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A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Baby's Dream Nook

Sing in our sweet lullaby;
 Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby. 

- William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 2 Scene2

I need to make a disclaimer here: My child will not be sleeping in this crib exactly as you see it in the pictures below. The berry vine would quickly become a snack,  and the chandelier, being that low, would become a swing. Also, the twinkle lights will probably never get turned on because I have a bizarre fear of fire, and she sleeps in the dark. But when the chandelier is raised and the vine is removed, or hung on the wall or some such thing, this is going to still be a perfect little place to dream.

We have this strange little nook that fits a crib perfectly, so I added some curtains,

hung a chandelier

and some twinkle lights, followed by a sheer layer of gauzy fabric...

I hung a sleeping angel to be near my own little angel

made a champagne colored damask bumper 

(It's totally not complete yet, BTW- just check out the back side of the crib!)

and a ruffled bed skirt.

And a midsummer night's dream needed some foliage, so I added the berry garland

and a touch of the forest on the tie-backs.

And there you have it: a new sweet place to dream.

May you have many lovely dreams on these midsummer nights.

 

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A Midsummer Night's Dream: Vintage Toiletry Bottle Labels

OBERON:  Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees. . . .

Having once this juice,
I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
The next thing then she waking looks upon,
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
She shall pursue it with the soul of love . . .

Sleep deprivation has all sorts of consequences.  There are the obvious ones, like fatigue, fuzzy thinking, and not remembering dentist appointments.  But then there are the more embarrassing ones, like smearing hair pomade on your face in the morning because your moisturizer jar looks EXACTLY like the pomade jar.

(Or at least it does if you squint your eyes when you have been up with a baby at least twice in the night.)

And if that isn't enough, sleep deprivation may just throw you a double whammy by not affording you the braincells to realize that the goo on your face is not moisturizer, but "Surf Hair Gum Paste," until your face starts to harden like a Renaissance statue and you frantically consider the possibility that mothers everywhere might have been right all those years when they said, "Don't make a face like that or your face might stay that way."

Not that this has ever happened to me, of course. 

So for those of you that struggle to find your footing in the wee hours of the morning, and who may need a little something to look forward to as the sun rises (besides an eyewash to remove searing hair product from your corneas), Miriam and I have created the following array of toiletries.

 

Every woman deserves a little magic in the morning.  All the better if that little bit of magic is perfectly vintage and feminine.

Here's how to do it.

First, collect an assortment of fun bottles IN VARIOUS SHAPES AND SIZES so you don't have a repeat of the incident mentioned above.  I found these for about a dollar each at a furniture/decor store.

Next, take a roll of contact paper and cut it to the size of an 8.5x11 piece of printer paper. 

Place your contact paper in a laser jet printer and print off your desired labels onto your paper.  

(all frames courtesy of The Graphics Fairy)

Cut your labels to size and then stick them on your bottles.

And all of a sudden, your morning ritual becomes a little more indulgent, a little more refined, and lots more enjoyable.  

Oh the difference a pretty label can make . . .

Boring bubble bath becomes "Bath Tincture" . . .

Moisturizer becomes "Creme de Visage" . . .

Everyday bath salts become a "Salted Water Potion" . . .

Lame Listerine becomes a "Mint Herbed Tonic for Breath" . . .

and the mandatory multivitamin becomes a "Vitamin Restorative".

 

Someday I hope to add a "nap potion" or a "slenderizing serum" to the array.  

Until then, I'll just be content that none of these magically feminine bottles could ever be confused with hair pomade.

Many magical mornings to you all!

Here are the image files, should you choose to make your own :)

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