Oh, for the love of...vinegar?

Lately I have been OBSESSED with using vinegar for so many things.

First, it started with cleaning the dishwasher. It seemed to help make it run better, dry faster and even degrease it some. (You know, the filter in the bottom gets "gunky" it helps clean it).

Then I read it works great in the laundry. First thing I did was use it to clean my washer. Our fabric softener thing in the middle was kinda gunky as well. I poured some in the softener hole and ran an empty load. It was still kinda gross, so I figured out how to tear it apart,  scrub it and put it back together. Now every load I wash, I pour a bunch in the fabric softener holder. I don't actually measure, I just pour until its full, and sometimes, I even pour until it's overflowing. Doesn't hurt anything, in fact, it's pretty good for the laundry! I know some people wonder, does it stink afterwards? Because face it, vinegar doesn't smell the best. Well, when you first open the washer, there's a very good chance you will smell it. HOWEVER, by the time the laundry is dry, either in the dryer OR hung to dry, there is no trace of vinegar smell. I will say the first couple times I used it on my towels, they seemed more scratchy than normal. I did some research (ok fine, I just googled it) and apparently that is very very normal. It's because it's breaking down the softener residue that's been left over from the other softeners and dryer sheets. A couple runs thru and they stopped, or you can keep using the dryer sheets with it. (I use them for the static stuff more than anything).

I recently have determined what a wonderful stain remover it is! Of course you would believe me better if I had before and after pictures, but I don't have any so you'll have to wait until next time I get a good stain. HOWEVER. For father's day, J got a light gray shirt with Darth Vader on it. Then for dinner we had ribs. and Emerson had red jello cake. Emerson's Jello cake ended up all over J's gray shirt. I thought for sure it was ruined after one wear, and I think that J believed it as well. But I made him take it off as soon as we got in the house. I took it upstairs to the laundry area (Seriously, I hope to never have to have my laundry anywhere but on the same floor as the bedrooms again...sorry, side tracked...) and poured a tiny bit of laundry detergent on it and scrubbed. All that it was doing was making a bigger mess so I kinda panicked.  I then put a towel under the shirt and poured some vinegar on as a last ditch effort and tossed it in the washer with some towels. Because honestly, if that Jello is gonna end up all over everything, it better be my towels and not my clothes!!!  But...low and behold, I pulled it out of the washer and it's GONE! I even hung it up to dry because I was worried it would magically reappear, but it did not. I also got some mystery grease stain on my favorite t shirt (it's my 5k shirt the Court to Court...It's American Apparel, so super soft). It had most likely been washed and dried on there so I was bummed, but thought, well, you never know, it might get rid of it. I put a little laundry detergent on again, just in case, then poured vinegar over then washed it. Also hung to dry and sure enough, no more mystery stains! I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to try it out with two little boys, so I'll see if I can find some pictures for us.

It also works great as an air fresher, and I include it in all of my homemade cleaners, like the Shower Magic, Homemade 409 and the magical shower head cleaner. You can also use it to clean your garbage disposal (freeze it in ice cubes then chop them up) and all kinds of other things. Recently, I even used it on the kitchen floor, by the door was pretty dingy, so thought I'd try it. Sprayed it on straight from the bottle and let it sit and it is VISIBLY cleaner with only a small amount of scrubbing. Overall, it's my new miracle product. The best part is, it's super cheap, and no harsh chemicals, so I feel safe using it around the pets and children.

What do you use vinegar for?

Busy Busy!

Summer is in full swing here at the Duggan household. Boys have been enjoying their time with Daddy. So far they've been to a few parks, visited Papa Leo, Grandma Jean, Nana and Papa, gone bowling, fishing, learning some school stuff, played with lots of toys, frisbee...the list goes on and on.

Last weekend Grandma Rory (Lori) and Aunt Sissy came to visit. We went to the farmer's market, the sculpture park and just spent time together. We also made supercool "acid" washed shirts using my Silhouette and some bleach. I found a couple links from Pinterest and they were super easy.

 I think overall we had a great time. I know the boys enjoyed spending time with them. They were pretty bummed out when they woke up from their nap on Sunday and they were gone. Daddy was at a card tournament and got 2nd place and had a lot of fun hanging out with his Iowa City friends he doesn't get to see very often.

Last week pretty much flew by and we spent the weekend being pretty low key. Farmer's Market on Saturday, followed by lunch. The boys then took a nap and I ran and got groceries and some last minute purchases for the father's day gifts for Daddy. We spent the evening playing, watching tv and then after the boys went to bed I went for a run and then played with my Silhouette some more. Really digging it!

I read a lot of reviews about what interfacing to get and decided to go with HeatNBond. My first cuts turned out great!! Unfortunately, I haven't put the pictures on my computer yet, but they are on my facebook if you are interested. I can't wait to actually work on a project I'm making for Kim.

I need to get off of here and get some stuff done around the house and get some actual work-work done, but hope everything is well for the rest of you :)

Sunday Evening

Busy weekend here in Dugganville.

Quick Recap:

 

Friday night I picked up the boys from their last day at daycare. They've been going there this time since January, however before J took last summer off, they had been there for years. Emerson since he was 6 weeks old and Spenny since he was about 8 months old. It was bittersweet, as the boys love their friends and it's always hard to say goodbye, but overall, it's the right decision for our family right now.  Afterwards we ran some errands, got some groceries and did a swing through Dollar Tree to see if they had anything worth crafting (I didn't see much, but of course left with two bags of stuff...funny how that works!)

Saturday we got up and around early enough to head to the farmer's market downtown. We love it...lots of people watching, food and just time out of the house and around a different atmosphere, music, food, smells...you know, typical farmer's market stuff. Unfortunately, we didn't actually make it. The Dam to Dam was winding down when we got there and we literally spent 30 minutes just trying to turn around to come back home. I had checked the roads the day before and everything to my ramp was supposed to be open, buuuuuut....it wasn't. Oh well. We ended up at the baseball fields and the park instead, followed by a trip to Dahl's and home for an early lunch. After the boys napped, we got around to go to Nana's surprise birthday party. She will be 50 next week, and Carrie did a wonderful job at the party. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and we got to visit with some people we don't see often. 

Today we went to my dad's for an impromptu birthday party for my younger brother. We were going to try to get with my dad last weekend, but we all ended up with different plans and it didn't work out so we rescheduled for today. My brother had also made plans with Dad and needed to resched, so it worked out best for all of us to be there at the same time. My brother brought along his girlfriend Ashley and our Grandpa Larry, who we don't see very often at all. The boys had a great time running around in the yard, playing Frisbee and kickball and just being crazy maniacs. Emerson learned he doesn't like flies and tries to scare them off with a Super Sonic Screech (It doesn't work, but it seems to make him feel better.) Spenny enjoyed spending time with Uncle Cody, climbing on him, playing with him and just overall having a great time. We got home a couple hours ago and have just been relaxing.

I started working on a new craft project and left it outside to dry while we were gone, however when we got home, it was gone. If anyone sees a Gum Drop colored cookie sheet around, lemme know as it probably came from here! I don't know if it blew away or if a neighbor kid now has a lavender shield, but the Diet Coke box I used as my drop cloth was still where I left it, so who knows. 

I'm going to fix a light dinner for the kids and then bath time. Tonight is the AGOT season finale, so hopefully the boys will be ready for a decent bed time so we can enjoy it without having to pause a million times to break up fights and lay them back down. 

Have a good week!