Quick DIY Cleaning Wipes

The colorful upcycled t-shirts make it look pretty too.

Does your bathroom ever get yucky long before you have time to really clean it?  Mine does.  I usually blame the hubby, but the truth is, we all have our own messes in there.  Am I right ladies?  Plus, with two dogs and a cat, there is typically a pretty high risk that you are going to have some sort of fur on any given surface at any given time.  Anyway, I always clean my kitchen and dining areas really well. Hubby some might say that I am a tiny bit OCD. I say that we eat stuff that comes from those areas and it needs to be clean.  That never changes. However, when things get super busy, the first thing that falls to the wayside is cleaning the bathroom.  No one likes to do it and frankly, it's not like we eat in there or anything.

Cutting up the t-shirt rags to see how many are needed.

Old t-shirts being upcycled.

So in order to combat yucky bathrooms, I have decided to start actually doing a quick wipe down of surfaces every morning.  (I haven't started this yet, so we will see how it goes.)  In order to make myself actually do this, I realized that I need to make it easy on myself.  I am never going to go to the kitchen where the spray and towels are located to walk it all back to the bathroom before I've even had my coffee.  Trust me, it's not going to happen.  But, I am perfectly capable of remembering to do this if I have the materials already in the correct room.  I think.

This is how many of the rags fit in the jar.

I am also not going to spend any money on anything to put this together.  The materials need to all be located in my house already.  Of course, I am a bit of a hoarder collector of things that I can reuse so this shouldn't be a problem for me.  I simply cut up old t-shirts into scraps large enough to use as a wipe and added them to a mason jar with a combination of vinegar, water, and antibacterial essential oils.  I can't really take credit for this idea though.  I saw something similar on pinterest awhile back, but it used ingredients that I still don't trust, like borax.  Honestly, the borax is unnecessary anyway because the vinegar and oils will kill anything. I decided to just use my own combination of these cleaners that I already use successfully everywhere else in my house.  So today I give you my recipe for antibacterial cleaning wipes.  Next time I plan on using lemon infused vinegar for the job, but my newest batch isn't done infusing yet. See the instructions for that here.
 

Finished product. 

Materials Needed:

Quart Sized Mason Jar with a Lid

10-15 Old Rags or Cut Up Old T-shirts

Ingredients:

1 cup filtered water
1 cup vinegar
20 drops lemon essential oil
10 drops lavender essential oil
5 drops tea tree essential oil
5 drops frankincense essential oil

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a mason jar and swirl to combine.  Add rags or t-shirts pushing down to get them submerged in the cleaning solution.  If needed, put lid on and flip jar upside down to saturate all of the rags. 

Do you have any easy tricks for keeping your home clean?  I'd love for you to share them with me in the comments section below.

-Donna 

Alfalfa Sprouts

Finished sprouts!

Sprouts are so delicious aren't they?  I absolutely love to top off just about anything with some sprouts.  Sandwiches, salads, soups, the possibilities are endless!  Sprouts are also amazingly good for you.  They contain tons of protein, enzymes, vitamins and amino acids that our bodies need.

This is not my image, but I just found it floating around on the internet.

One negative side to sprouts is that they can be pretty expensive.  This might be due to the fact that they don't last very long.  I'm not really sure, because they are so easy to make from super inexpensive seeds, beans or legumes.  Different types of sprouts have different nutrients, although the general benefits discussed above are the same.  They also have different uses.  For example, we like to sprout lentils and use them in salads, cook them up in soups, and add them to bread for an extra protein and vitamin boost.  The much more delicate alfalfa sprouts are delicious raw on salads and sandwiches.

Two tablespoons of seeds.

Soaking the sprouting seeds.

According to Sprout People, alfalfa sprouts contain Vitamins A, B, C, E, and K, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc, Carotene, Chlorophyll, Amino Acids, Trace Elements, and 35% protein. These little guys pack a lot of punch, huh?

All the materials

Often people will tell you that you need special equipment to make your own sprouts.  This is not true.  As long as you have a large (quart size) mason jar and some cheesecloth, you are good to go.  You also need water and alfalfa seeds (or broccoli or radish) made especially for sprouting.

Day 1 After Soaking

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5: Morning

Day 5: Afternoon. Ready to Eat.

Materials Needed:

Alfalfa Sprouting Seeds

Mason Jar or Sprouting Jar

Cheesecloth or Strainer Lid (if using a mason jar) 

Filtered Water

Directions:

1. Add 2 tablespoons of alfalfa seeds to a large mason jar or sprouting jar.  

2. Add filtered water to cover and let soak for 8 hours or overnight.  

3. Secure cheese cloth to the top of the mason jar and rinse and drain. 

4. Place jar upside down at a 45 degree angle if possible to drain on a bowl or plate.  

5. Rinse and drain two to three times per day for three to five days.  

6. When sprouts have grown to the point that they are filling up your jar, put them in a sunny area for a few       hours to facilitate formation of chlorophyll.

7. When the leaves turn green they are ready to be put into cold storage or eaten.  

8. Sprouts need to be eaten within a few days.

Note: it is also a good idea to skim the seeds off of the sprout.  This helps to keep mold from growing.  Just put finished sprouts in a bowl and fill it up with filtered water.  The seeds should float to the top and you can just skim them off.  This does sound slightly easier and less time consuming than it actually is.  

One of my absolute favorite sandwiches is just hummus, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and sprouts on whatever bread you like.  Yummy!  Do you make your own sprouts? Why or why not?

-Donna

How to Make a Throw Pillow

DIY Throw Pillows

Hey there everyone. Sorry I've been slacking lately. Man, things have gotten busy busy busy. Hubby has been out of town this past week and is actually only coming home for one night before he's off again next week. I've been trying to get a women's sewing group together at my church for a nonprofit organization called Days for Girls. We will be making reusable feminine hygiene products for impoverished girls all over the world. I highly recommend you look up the organization here. Hopefully I'll be able to post more about that sometime soon.

This has nothing to do with the tutorial, but this is one of the things taking up my time lately.

For now, I am still slacking in terms of this blog, but I have been making these throw pillows to sell at a friend's tropical themed art studio in Rincon. I absolutely have got to get a little bit of income coming in to support all of my little addictions hobbies. Anyway, the reason I say I am still slacking is that this is really more of a non tutorial as it is literally about as basic as sewing can get except for the slip stitch, which is not difficult at all and is also optional. This is my first sewing tutorial though, so please bear with me.

One finished product

Throw Pillow

Materials needed:

One yard of fabric per two pillows (you will have some excess fabric.)
Coordinating thread
Pillow stuffing
Sewing machine
Scissors
Measuring tape
Pins
Sewing needle

1. Determine what size you want your pillows to be.  I make pretty standard 15 x 15 inch pillows here.

The cut squares

2. Cut out two 16 x 16 in squares of fabric per pillow.

3. Lay squares of fabric with right sides together (meaning, the pretty sides are on the inside) and pin.  Make sure to double check the print direction if necessary.

Pinned right sides together

 4. Sew around all but about 3 or 4 inches (to flip) of the square using a 1/4 inch seam allowance (or whatever you are comfortable with).  Make sure to back stitch at the beginning and end.

Sewing around the perimeter

Backstitching at the opening

5. Iron and press the seams open, clip the corners, and turn right side out making sure to poke out the corners.

Corners clipped

Ironing everything nice and flat

Flip the pillow right side out.  Can you tell I kept forgetting to take pictures as I went?

6. Stuff the pillows as much as you like.  Be sure to get it in the corners too.

Stuff with fluff (yeah, I just said that)

Almost done

Ready to be closed up

7. Slip stitch the opening closed or do a top stitch with your sewing machine if you don't want to do that much work by hand.  I don't like the look of top stitching on throw pillows (weird I know) so I do things the hard way.  This is the tutorial I used to learn to slip stitch, although I don't sew the opening closed and then rip it out later.  It would probably help, I'm just a lazy seamstress.

Slip stitching the opening closed.

8. Place pillows on couches/beds and sit back and admire your work.

I hope you enjoyed this easy throw pillow tutorial, and I hope it saves you lots and lots of money on interior decorating.  Have you ever made your own pillows?

Donna