Bathroom Progress

You may be wondering what I'm going to talk about based on the title of this post....but you can keep reading and is safe! My goal is to get our master bath looking better and I've done a few first steps, but still have a ways to go. I posted earlier a new rug that I have down in the kitchen...well that was triggered by the fact that I moved the old black runner that was there to the master bath. I think the black rugs look good in the bathroom cause is in contrast to all the white walls and the light gray floor. I think our vanity area looks pretty good now except I would like to just paint the small space that is between our mirror and ceiling, where the light fixtures are. I think that would just kind of finish this area off.


Next up, we have this crazy-sized unique round shower. I can't stand it cause the shower water sprays everywhere and leaves the floor soaking wet. So a few months ago Dustin got real ambitious and created a shower rod by talking to the Home Depot people-- just got some brackets and bent a pipe....was a lot more work than it seems! So next up was finding a shower curtain to fit this. I was able to at least get a plastic liner that was extra long at Bed Bath and Beyond....but no curtain. So I was at Target and got to thinking... why don't I look in the curtain section because I know they sell drapes in all sorts of sizes and maybe I can get something there that works. I found this curtain that had holes up top- perfect to put my shower curtain rings through....and it was the perfect length! I would have liked a bit more width, but I'm done being picky. So far I think it's worked just fine!


So finally, we have this back area that has the toilet and tub. We hung some shelves above the toilet, so I just need to work a bit more on getting some better items there. And the tub area definitely needs some paint....is driving me crazy how white it all is. So this will be a project for a coming weekend!

Europe....around the corner!

We're SLOWLY making progress on our Europe trip! So here is where things stand now.

Sat 9/4- Flight booked leaving around lunch time
Sun 9/5- Arrive in Paris in AM. Travel to Bruges, Belgium.
Mon 9/6- Belgium- Bruges
Tue 9/7- Belgium- Bruges
Wed 9/8- Belgium- Brussels. Travel to Paris in PM.
Thu 9/9- Paris- Museum Pass day
Fri 9/10- Paris- Museum Pass day
Sat 9/11- Day Trip to Versailles
Sun 9/12- Paris- Museum Pass day
Mon 9/13- Day trip to Reims or Beaune (most museums closed in paris, so want to go to champagne caves or winery)
Tue 9/14- Paris
Wed 9/15- Paris and travel to Munich
Thu 9/15- Munich
Fri 9/16- Munich
Sat 9/15- Munich Oktoberfest starts!!!!
Sun 9/16- Munich. Return to Paris in evening.
Mon 9/17- Fly home :(

We've booked our room in Paris, which can be cancelled if I find something better. We got for 116 euro most nights, so thought was decent deal and the reviews say there are restaurants, cafes, shops nearby, and no crime.


We've also booked our room in Munich, which is non-refundable so we are definitely staying here! It is outside of the city, but we got for a good price since everything in the city was booked or super expensive.


Next up- get the room booked for Belgium and get our train passes or travel reservations made!

Kitchen Update

So the same day I had my detergent experiment, I also did some MAJOR cleaning and got some other projects done. I'm so proud of myself cause I've kept everything cleaned now this entire last week! This is huge for us and I'm hoping to break a lot of my bad sloppy habits. I've realized it's much easier to take 3 minutes for instance each night and put all dishes in the dishwasher vs. the counter/sink and to wipe down the countertops rather than let it pile up and do all at once days later. I finally got around to getting a picture of one of the projects tonight...I don't think it turned out awesome, but was an improvement. Using some paint I had in our storage unit, I added a splash of color in our kitchen/family room to my wall of mirrors. I do like it cause it ties in our family room furniture that is all different shades of brown. I then bought a new rug at wal-mart that fit the color scheme really well. So it was a fairly cheap project to change things up a little!

Before Pic:


After Pic:

Detergent Review :)

So next up I tried not diluting the mixture in the 5 gallon bucket. I researched some other recipes and none were as diluted as much as mine was, so I think they were just trying to stretch this one a little too far! I took an older towel and rubbed into it Ketchup, Mustard, Toothpaste, and liquid foundation Makeup. My homemade detergent took everything out 100% except the makeup. Next up, repeated the same test with my store detergent and......the same result! The store detergent didn't take the makeup off any better, so I think I've now achieved the same product as what I was buying! Doing more loads of laundry tonight with it, so am crossing my fingers no surprises pop up!

Detergent Review :(

So I tried a load of laundry last night with the detergent I made. I took an old towel and rubbed ketchup and mustard into it as a test. At first glance when it came out of the laundry it looked clean...but upon further examination you could see faintly where the food was. And I'm pretty sure my normal store detergent would have been able to take care of it. So, I've been researching other recipes and user comments and am going to try another test without diluting the soap mixture. So basically I'm just going to try using it straight from the 5 gallon bucket...whereas before I used half mixture from my bucket and half water. I'll report back!

Detergent

I think Dustin seriously thinks I've gone off the deep-end lately, but he's golfing all day today so I'm taking advantage of the free time to do more crazy stuff.

First, one thing that drives me bonkers is dustin will never drink water at home...it's always milk, juice, gatorade, etc. It's at least good it's all healthy stuff rather than soda, but seems to get expensive when he drinks SO much of it over the free water that he could be using! So today I found that Gatorade makes a powder that you mix with water to make your own gatorade which is WAAAAAAAAY cheaper than the premade bottles we always buy. So I mixed some of that up and will see what he thinks of this!


Next, I've read on some other blogs of people making their own laundry detergent and it saves them a ton of money....so I thought why not give that a stab?! Here's the supplies I had to buy--

5 Gallon Bucket- on sale at Lowe's for $1
Fehls Napa bar- $2.29
Arm & Hammer Washing Soda- $3.29
Borax- $2.79

So even if this is total disaster, I haven't wasted much money cause I can still use the bucket, washing soda, and borax for things. Basically I'm just out my $2 bar of soap.

So you start by grating the bar of soap into a pot on low heat and just dissolve it to make soapy water. It dissolved VERY easily, but did take a while to grate!


I then put the bucket in the bath tub (since we never use) and filled it half way with hot water. Then I added 1 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup Borax and stirred until dissolved. I added my soapy mixture and gave it a swish. Then you add more hot water to fill to the top. Stir a little more and cover. My bucket didn't have a lid, so I've just used Saran Wrap.


I'll let it sit overnight and it should thicken. And then I can fill some containers halfway with the mixture and the other half with water and it gels into detergent. I'll end up with 10 gallons total and use 1/4 cup for each load...so this is going to last like all year I swear and theoretically each time I make this only costs less than $3!

Click here for a link to the recipe.

Photography Practice

So on Sunday I met up with some girls I know through a local message board from when I was planning the wedding cause there are a lot of us trying to learn how to use our cameras to take awesome pictures. So we got together at City Garden hoping that some of the more experienced could teach us some things...however, of the people that went we were all fairly close to the same level. But I did pick up a few things!

First, one of the girls shared a project she is working on called the 100 Snapshot Challenge where your object is to photograph 100 pictures that capture the word on the list. The words are such things like love, concrete, dirty, fresh, etc. So I eventually may start trying this...but for now am just focusing on practicing.

Second, I never really used the "Close-up" setting on my camera-- frequently looks like a little flower on your camera. It never seemed to do anything for me, but I learned that I wasn't getting close enough to my objects. I found a bee on a flower and got right up on it with this setting and think it turned out pretty well. Also used it on this daisy.



Third, I learned you can take off your lens and just hold it up to your camera backwards and it makes an extreme macro lens. It's a little tricky to do, but once you get it just right you can get some great detail! I had a bad case of the shakes so definitely did not get it as clear as it should be, but I can't wait to experiment with this more. This is a quarter and I did no zoom or cropping of the original picture.


Here were just some of the better pics I felt I got...nothing very great, but gotta learn somehow! This poor girl got squirted with the water in her eyes :))

Liam's 1st Bday

Just a quick post...Yesterday we celebrated Liam's (our nephew) first birthday party! I think he enjoyed the taste of ice cream, cake, brownie, and icing much more than his usual smooshed veggies!

Happy 4th of July!

It was a BUSY weekend, so this is a belated post. Since we've been out of town the last few years over the 4th, I was excited to be able to get back to the VP Fair here. So our plan was for Sunday night to head down and watch the fireworks in my favorite location right in front of the courthouse...and we go early to nab out spot and have a picnic and play scrabble. Around 5:30 we went over to Culinaria to pick out our food and went with a wine/cheese theme. Came home and cut up all the cheese, washed the grapes, etc. Got everything packed up and about 6:45 decided to head over. We get down to the lobby and the floor is soaking wet....my heart nearly stops and we look out the door and see the ground is soaked. Here we were cooped up inside just packing away for our picnic oblivous to the fact it was POURING outside! So the rain is diminishing, so we decide to go get a plastic tarp I had from painting and hope that will buffer us from the soggy ground. Now with tarp in tow, we head out and is just occasionally spitting. We finally arrive at my spot and it is slim pickins....not sure how the rain didn't scare people off....and we are drenched in sweat cause was so humid out. We just look at each and are thinking this is worst idea ever! however, our tarp kept us dry and as we sat, it wasn't too unbearably hot. It did start spitting again and some storm clouds rolled over us, but never rained enough to have to pack our stuff up and seek cover! The fireworks were good, but we both felt a little disappointed to what we had seen in previous years. Oh, and most importantly, Dustin DESTROYED me in scrabble, so still have yet to cross the accomplishment of beating him off my 101 list!

Pickles

Got to cross another item off my 101 in 1001 list. I got some cucumbers and onions at the farmers market this week and took a stab at making pickles. My boss has a huge garden, so she makes her own pickles and told me about this super easy recipe. I had my doubts, but they turned out AWESOME! I'll definitely be making these again and would recommend to anyone whose wanting to try making homemade pickles. I did use Dry Mustard instead of Mustard Seed cause was what I had in the cupboard and I don't even know if they are the same thing! Also used Celery Salt instead of Celery Seed and then just used a tad less regular salt. Wouldn't make any changes for next time!