Hopeful Housewife

So my daughter has been borderline obsessed w/Hannah Montana for the last two years. I didn’t have a problem with it until recently. The show is just much too mature for my seven year old, and Miley’s personal life being in the public eye as much as it is makes it impossible for me to hide her teenaged mistakes from my daughter. I’ve been slowly working on Trinity, asking her if she’d like to change her room, which was decked out FULLY in Hannah. It was enough to make a girl sick, trust me. The other day, she agreed to my suggestions, and I wasted no time whatsoever. I spent a total of ten dollars and fifty cents redecorating her room. I used a bedspread I already owned that was given to me several months ago. I have held onto it as a “just in case” blanket, but found a much better use for it. The bedskirt I bought about a month ago at a thrift store for $2.00, with the intention of putting it on Ms. Piper’s bed, so that was in my linen closet as well. The Lacy pillow was 1.50, and was the first thing we purchased specifically for Trin’s room. The canvas painting over her bed was in my school room, but served a much better purpose in her room. That was 10.00 roughly a month ago as well. The two signs, “tickle” and “behave” were in my home decor collection, and I simply hadn’t found a home for them since we moved. They are perfect in there as Tickle was Trinity’s first word (which is why I bought the sign) and behave is the word she hears all day long . Each sign (well over a year ago) was 3.00 or less. The bookshelf was in Piper’s room, the pink cloths are napkins that I got for my Valentines day table scape for 25 cents each. The little rose floral arrangment was purchased for my living room, but yet again, looked better in her new space. It was 2.85 at the Salvation Army. The plates are from my Christmas China, and were purchased at a Hospice Thrift Store 2 years ago for 10.00 for the set of 12. They read “Faith”, “Hope”, “Peace” and “Love”. The plate hangers are from the dollar store. The artwork on her wall is made from two dollar tree frames, a package of dollar tree file folders in that somewhat victorian print. I wrote two verses I read to her often on them and put em’ up on the wall. Total cost for the wall: $3.00. The window treatment is a 2.00 lace tablecloth hung on little hooks, and tied up with ribbon I had in the girls’ hair stuff drawer. The rug at the foot of her bed was another thing I pulled out of my valentines day decor, and I paid .75 cents for it several months ago. The lamp was from Pipers room, and wasnt being used because she broke her shade. I put a shade on it from a lamp that was in MY room, and tied another piece of ribbon on it. The lace it sits on is a lace collar my mother-in-law gave me years ago that has been in my fabric stash for ages. The table is a tv-tray that is covered in yet another v-day tablecloth.

So if I were to total it all up, its more than 10.50, but considering the vast majority of the stuff I used is just repurposed stuff from around the house, this is the total I’m going by:

Lacy pillow: 1.50

Plate hangers: 4.00

Framed “artwork” 3.00

Paper doilies: 1.00 (actually way less than that as they were 24 for a dollar and I only used four or five)

Rose scented linen spray: 1.00

Total: 10.50!

SO here are the pics:

The room:

The bookshelf, with the floral arrangement, a framed pic of my mom and I was I was little, a framed note I gave Trinity, A few of my vintage mason jars w/silk flowers inside, and her new rose scented linen spray:

Her wall art:

The other blank wall, with the plates:

her work area:

Her window “treatment”

and just for fun: the best book ever for little girls:

Her room before: (and this is a mild version of it! This was before quite a few items were added!)

Much better!!!

As I was cleaning my dining room, and dusting my piano the other day, I noticed that the vintage ice bucket I had on top of the piano had leaked water (that I didnt know was even in it) onto my piano!! Check out THIS white ring people…I’ve never seen one like it!

 Wanna know how to make these awful stains go away!?

Put a towel down on the spot, and place an iron over it on low-medium heat, WITHOUT steam:

Run it over the spot over and over until it begins to dry up. Unless it has penetrated the finish, it should come up. I have NO idea how long that stain had been there, but it could have been 2 weeks or more as that is when I put the ice bucket there. I was surprised it came out as well as it did!! You can still see where the ring was, but after some furniture polish (I use orange glo by the way), it was pretty darn good:

So now you know…and knowing is half the battle.

So I said this was going to be a Wednesday feature, but I wasn’t home most of the day yesterday, and never made it to the computer.

SO…Here’s this weeks challenge:

Have you cleaned the top of your fridge lately? I did this last night, and I only wish I had taken before and after pictures. I could have easily won my own contest. It’s amazing how much stuff piles up on top of our fridge!! Usually its stuff that we want to keep out of the kids’ hands…but it ends up being a useless pile of stuff we cant get to either.  I put a small wicker basket on top of the fridge for dh’s keys, watch, change, etc because he is quite the fridge top clutterbug…now, hopefully, it will stay somewhat contained.

So how about you?

Fettucine Alfredo w/salad and homemade dinner rolls, topped with garlic butter.

Here’s the sauce recipe: you MUST try it!!!

1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons cream cheese
1 pint heavy cream
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt
black pepper
2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese (preferably fresh)
1 lb fettuccine, prepared as directed

Directions

1 In a medium saucepan, melt butter.
2 When butter is melted, add cream cheese.
3 When the cream cheese is softened, add heavy cream.
4 Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Once mixed, add parm cheese.
5 Simmer for 15-20 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly.
6 Serve over hot fettucine noodles.

my own suggestions: the longer you can simmer, the better. It says 15-20 min, but I shoot for 25-30. Half and Half can be substituted for cream, which will yield a slightly less rich product.

Enjoy!!

I love spring. Technically, its not here yet, but if you walked outside here, you’d agree with me that it arrived a bit early.

I went out to my camelia bushes and clipped these for this floral arrangement. (The trick to keeping the flowers in place with perfect spacing is a flower frog! I have picked up all of mine at thrift stores for 50 cents or less!!)Flowers are just the most refreshing thing you can do for you home, I’m convinced!!

 My understated, simple dining room centerpiece made from a dollar store placemat, a thrift store round mat, a hand me down cut glass platter, paper doilie, and a fifty cent vintage blue Ball canning jar I got at an estate sale a year ago. Add five daffodils from my backyard, and voila.

Love this time of year.

So here’s our March photo contest:

Take a “before” pic of a project…then take the “after” picture as well, and send em’ both to me. The most impressive transformation will receive a goody box of some of my favorite cleaning products and supplies. Ingredients to make my laundry soap will be included in the box.

Contest will run through March to give you time to get your spring cleaning started (and finished!)

 Here’s my before and after to get you goin’.

I scrubbed my fireplace down last night using a soot remover that I picked up at the hardware store. It’s for glass and/or masonry.

I dont have a great shot of the fireplace before, but here’s what it looked like when we moved in. You really couldnt even see through the glass in most places, and note the soot on the brick:

and here’s the after, complete with a clear shot of all the ashes and wood in the fireplace.

 Not perfect, but a vast improvement, no?

My new idea for Wednesdays: Suggest an item in your home that often gets overlooked when cleaning time comes! I actually have a few today, so here goes:

Have you cleaned the washing machine lately? If its not too funky, all you need to do is wipe it down, inside and out, and along the top part of the basin where “yuck” collects. If you have a fabric softener cup, remove it and scrub it down. Clean out your bleach cup as well if you have one. For extra funk, scrub with a toothbrush along all those corners in your lid where soap hides and becomes gross, lol. After you’re done, run your washer empty with a cup of vinegar or bleach. (I usually wipe it down with bleach then run vinegar through the cycle.)

Have you cleaned the dishwasher lately?

Run it empty with bleach in the cup and a half cup or so in the bottom of the dishwasher. If you have removeable filters, etc, pull those out and give em’ a scrub. No need to run a heated cycle here!

Have you cleaned the knife block lately?

I have to admit, I hadnt given the knife block much thought. Its wood, so I wasnt sure what to do with it! I was looking at it early this morning and thinking about how gross it looked, lol. I scrubbed it down with a touch of dish soap and a little hard bristled brush. Rinsed it well, immediately wiped it dry, and took a blow dryer to the holes to insure it was completely dry. The grossest thing was that my knives slid in much smoother…no tellin’ what was slowing them down before..ewwww….

 So there you have it ladies…your Wednesday challenge!!

Nikki, with the pic of her son baking. I love how focused he is, lol…he means business!!! I’m also pretty sure his cookie cutter is upside down, which makes this pic even better.

Thanks for participating!!