How to Clean the Dirt and Sweat Stains out of Shoes... EW!

I don’t know about all you other mommies of little girls but I love to put sandals and other cutsie shoes on my daughter (Now that she’s walking. I’m totally opposed to shoes before walking HAHA)! Especially living in Florida we get the opportunity to wear sandals most of the year! I ALSO do not like to spend tons of money on all those cutsie shoes! Especially that they grow out of them so quickly! One of my biggest money saving tips I could give is to buy used! Normally I don’t like to buy used shoes but I figured with infants and toddlers the shoes get used so little and for such a short amount of time that if I could just clean them up a bit, I would totally do it! A relative bought some adorable sandals for our daughter at a consignment shop. Although I loved them I noticed they had those black foot stains at the bottom of the inside of the shoe. GROSS! Wasn’t going to put that on my baby! But they were just too cute I had to figure out a way to deep clean these shoes! I’ve always heard of throwing old or dirty sneakers in the washer and they come out good as new but I was afraid that with these being sandals and BABY sandals at that, that they would get messed up. So I pulled an old trick that my grandma taught me when I was growing up. An old TOOTHBRUSH! We don’t throw away old toothbrushes at my house! We save them (clean them with bleach first) and use them for those small tedious cleaning projects such as this one! I figured let me try to take some liquid laundry detergent (my homemade stuff ;) ) and this toothbrush and try to clean these shoes! Here’s what I did:

Took the shoes and ran them under warm water to get them damp. Then, I filled the Cap of the Laundry detergent up and soaked the toothbrush in it.

Scrubbed the shoe all around ESPECIALLY THE INSIDE of the shoe.

Then for extra stain removing, I sprayed the entire shoe with stain remover (especially the shoe's stitching thread) and let it sit over night.

Then I rinsed them off in the morning and they look practically NEW! See below: Right is before, Left is after.

The writing on the inside of the shoe may come off or fade but hey who cares! As long as they're clean and functional!

Now these aren't the shoes that I tried this on the first time. Both of these pairs are actually shoes that I bought my daughter that she had outgrown and dirtied. Instead of throwing them away I figured I could give them to a friend, sell/consign them or save them for later now that they are all clean! Just another way to save/earn money!

Goodbye Crazy May Days!

Phew!!! I made it through May, one of the busiest months of the year for my family. Both our daughter’s birthday AND me and my husband’s anniversary fall within less than a week of each other in May! Not to mention it was our only daughter’s VERY FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! Of course since she is our little princess, she had a princess first birthday party. But not just ANY princess, her very favorite princess, Snow White! Needless to say it was quite a hectic and busy couple of weeks for our family. BUT I am happy to say that with a lot of work, time and a tremendous amount of help we pulled it off! Here’s the proof HAHA!

 "Poison" Apples:

 Bird Nests:

 Acorns:

Fruit Salad Well:

  

Dish Names:

Present From Momma & Daddy:

 

Overall both our sweet princess' enchanted first birthday party and me and my husband's anniversary weekend gat-away were great successes. And what do you know... Its June! Helloooooo Summer!

Recipe: Crock Pot Salsa Chicken

Do you ever have those days when you really don’t feel like cooking that night? I have those way more often than I’d care to admit. Its night like those when I pull out my friend Mr. Crockpot! This recipe is super easy and is my husband’s absolute favorite Crockpot meal.

Here is what you’ll need:

• Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast (I like to do a basic seasoning on mine and cut them into strips for more thorough cooking first)
• 1 Cup Salsa
• 1 Can of Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 Packet of Taco Seasoning
• 1 Cup of Sour Cream
• Optional: White Rice or Tortillas (depending on how you want to serve it

Add Chicken, Salsa, Soup, Taco Seasoning and 1/2 of the cup of Sour Cream to your Crockpot.

Cook on Low for about 5 1/2 hours.

Shred the chicken with a fork and add the other 1/2 cup of sour cream. Mix well and let cook for an additional 1/2 hour.

*Don't you just love when cooking dinner looks like this?!

Serve over white rice or in a tortilla (like a taco) with your favorite toppings!

Hope you enjoy this simple recipe! Let me know how it turns out for you!

Source: http://chefmommy-brandao.blogspot.com/2011/03/salsa-chicken-slow-cooker.html

How to Clean Your Coffee Maker Without Using Soap

Going into marriage I knew my husband was quite the coffee fanatic. Don't get me wrong I love me my coffee but no one compares to my husband. My husband seems to think our home coffee maker is the local Starbucks! A few months after we first got married I noticed the coffee pot getting brown coffee residue on it so I washed it out with soap and water. No biggie, right? Apparently not! My husband got so upset that I had washed out "his" coffee pot with soap. He said the brown residue is where all the "flavor" is… umm EWW!!! After I kindly explained that that was absolutely disgusting to me he agreed to let me rinse the coffee pot out daily with ONLY WATER. He said the soap makes it taste funny. I figured marriage is all about compromise, right? So I agreed. A few months later, much to my husband's delight and to my horror, I noticed the brown residue returning except this time "WATER ONLY" would not wash it out. But again marriage is compromise so I let it be for a few months. That is until one day while browsing on my beloved Pinterest account, I came across a pin on how to clean a coffee maker. It required using baking soda though, so I had a feeling my husband wouldn't go for it. I was correct. No such luck. It took me about another month of daily begging for him to finally agree to let me try! SUCCESS! So I tried it! This is what I did:

Supplies:
1/4 Cup of Baking Soda
1-2 Cups of hot water (it works with cold or room temperature water too I discovered)

Mix the Baking Soda into the water. I use regular temperature water just because I didn't notice much to any difference between my results. 

Mix the Baking Soda into the water with a spoon as best you can.

Pour the Water/Baking Soda mixture into the area of the coffee maker where you usually pour the water. NOTE: Make sure you do not have a filter in the coffee maker.

I noticed after I had poured the contents into my coffee maker that there was some baking soda powder left behind in the pot. I just add about 1/2 - 1 cup more to get all that out.

Let it brew like normal and admire your yummy "coffee." Pretty icky, right?

 

Repeat this step using clean water each time, until the water brews clear. It normally takes me 4-5 times.

This really works to clean not only the coffee maker but it also got rid of all the icky brown residue in the coffee pot!!! I would recommend repeating this whole process at least once a month. Let me know how it works for you.

Sources:

http://www.food.com/recipe/drip-coffee-maker-cleaner-156833

How to Clean the Grease and Grime off of your Stove Filter

About this time last year my husband and I purchased and moved into our first home! While it was great to finally be home owners after almost 2 years of searching, the challenges of fixing up and cleaning a previously owned home were upon us oh too soon. One of the pettier cleaning jobs that was really getting under my skin was the filter for the stove hood. It was just plain GROSS!

I tried pretty much everything in the book to get this thing clean! I scrubbed it with bleach, let it soak in bleach, scrubbed it with CLR, let it soak in CLR but it still stood grimy and gross! NOTHING was working to get this thing clean! So while exploring my then, newly discovered Pinterest account I came across a DIY on how to clean these stove filters! I was skeptical to say the least. This looked WAY TOO SIMPLE to actually work when I had already tried all the tricks of the trade I could think of. But I figured it was worth a shot before I headed to the Home Improvement store to buy a new one. So I gave it a shot and what do you know!

Here's what I did:

Supplies:

• 1/2 Cup of Baking Soda
• Pot of Boiling Water
• Spoon

Bring your pot of water to an active boil

Scoop out ONE SPOONFUL AT A TIME of the baking soda!

The water will start to instantly fizz up when the baking soda is added so it needs to be added slowly to avoid this:

Then dip your filter in carefully.

My whole filter didn't fit in my pot so what I did was dipped each end in,

then poured the pots contents on the middle section (front and back) in the sink. My results (Drum-roll please!!!!!!!.....)

I was amazed!

And this is the story of how Pinterest and I became the best of friends! Hope this helps you all! Let me know if it works for you.

Sources:
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/how-to-clean-that-greasy-stove-hood.html

Cleaning A Microwave DIY

Cleaning A Microwave:

Supplies:

• Vinegar
• Water
• Microwavable Bowl/Cup

Directions:
My microwave before. Please don't judge me! We had an insta-grits explosion!:

Fill a microwavable bowl/cup1/4 - 1/3 of the way with water and then pour about a cup of vinegar into the bowl/cup.

Place bowl/cup in the microwave for 5 minutes

Remove bowl/cup from microwave CAREFULLY! IT WILL BE HOT!

Wipe the microwave down with a clean, wet rag. The grime or crusted on food should come off pretty easily. I did have to put some elbow grease into my tray and scrub it off with warm water in the sink because of the crusted grits but it still came off a lot easier than normal!
My microwave after:

Ta-Dah!! Seemed to do the trick. My microwave has some staining on top that I was hoping this trick would remove that it did not. So overall I did find this DIY very helpful for getting out food splatters but not too much on stains and severe crusted on food. Give it a try and let me know how it does for you! Also, I'm very open to suggestions on how to get these stains out of my microwave!

Source:
http://practicallyfunctional.net/2012/04/how-to-clean-your-microwave-in-2/