The BEST Shower Cleaner in the WORLD!

Posted on May 25, 2012 by october

Yes, I am that excited about this, that I used caps!

I hate cleaning the shower. I always have. We went with a solid marble shower when we built the house in hopes that would be easier to clean. It is. But I still hate doing it! My cleaning routine is as follows:

Mold builds up in the caulk lines
The floor turns a weird orange color
Time to clean
Spray the caulk with the strongest mold and mildew cleaner
Sprinkle with Comet, let it sit for an hour
Scrub off the chunks (or until my elbows fall off)
Forget the soap scum on the walls, it is white like the marble

I know…it is gross. Just keeping it real.

Pinterest is FILLED with cleaning “miracles” most of which I am skeptical about. I made the laundry detergent which I have been really happy with. The few other things I have tried…not so happy with. When I stumbled across this shower cleaner and people swore up and down that it worked, well I had to try it out myself.

The main ingredients are extra strength vinegar (pickling vinegar), dawn dish soap and a spray bottle. The vinegar is what does the trick. The dish soap just adds thickness to it. Some suggested using cornstarch or flour to thicken it up…I tried it and it does not work as well. Stick with the Dawn.

Heat up the vinegar until it is almost boiling (about 4 minutes in my microwave for 3 cups). CAUTION: The smell is STRONG! Don’t inhale it or you will burn your nose/lungs! Mix in about 2T of dawn, or just enough to thicken it up. Put it in the spray bottle and spray on the shower. I let it sit for about 15 minutes.

OH.MY.WORD.

It worked!

The 1 inch thick layer of soap scum wiped off fairly easily! I was so giddy with excitement, I got out the scrub brush and with a few strokes, the shower was clean! This picture does not do it justice. (And since I did not believe it would really work I did not take a before picture.) You can see the window reflection on the wall and the water drops. That WAS a layer of soap scum!

*This will not do anything about the mold and mildew though. I guess I will have to keep bleach on hand for that.

Record Bowls

Posted on May 13, 2012 by october

For Mother’s Day this year, I had the girls in my Girl Scout troop make record bowls. These were some VERY old Reader’s Digest records that were going in the trash, so I snagged them. The girls each had to design the front and back of the record.

Then I put it in the oven at 200F for about 3 minutes on a small bowl. The sides will slowly melt down and just before they touch the bottom, I grab them out of the oven. The records are pretty warm, but not hot enough to need oven mitts, I just use my hands. If you wait to take it out, they will get VERY HOT and you will need mitts.

I center the record up on a larger bowl and push it down to make the form. You can actually use any shape and even shape it with your hands.

The final product. The moms loved them…not to mention kind of a unique gift.

Mother’s Day 2012

Posted on May 13, 2012 by october

This year for mother’s day I wanted to give my mom something she could not buy anywhere else. I found this awesome sign on Pinterest from House of Hempworths and I just had to make it! I wish I could say that I bought the template she offers and cut the vinyl out with my Silhouette Cameo…but I have yet to get a Cameo for my birthday, or Mother’s Day, or Christmas. Someday. {{{sigh}}}

I had to improvise with what I have. I used the projector that is in the art room to throw up the image onto a large piece of butcher paper and I traced it. Then it took me an HOUR to cut it all out. My template was ready so then I started on the sign.

I bought some cheap fencing slats from HD and cut them to the desired length. I screwed on some support boards on the back. If I had more time I would have let this sit in the sun for several weeks to flatten out and weather a bit, but I was doing this at the last minute (no surprise there) so I did not have time to get the warping out.

Since I did not have vinyl to paint over, I decided to paint the lettering onto the wood. First, I gave it a rough coat of some light grey that we had in the garage. I did not make it perfect and left several areas with the wood showing through.