DIY: Natural Multipurpose Cleaner

Since becoming pregnant, I’ve taken a closer look at some of the chemicals that are part of my daily life and have done some reassessing – I’m talking to you, nail polish!… which is apparently really really bad for you :( I switched over to a homemade cleaner a few years ago and haven’t looked back. Sure, I have to put in a tiny bit more elbow grease, but I’m fine with that. I need the exercise anyway. The one thing I miss from my all purpose cleaner is a “fresh” smell. Most store bought cleaners have a synthesized fresh smell of pine or citrus.. but I was wondering if there was a natural and affordable way I could add the smell of lemons to my vinegar solution so that my house  didn’t smell like salt and vinegar chips. Granted, the vinegar-y smell dries off fairly quickly, but wouldn’t lemon-infused vinegar be so much better?? After a bit of internet sleuthing, I found what I was looking for!

To make this:

1. Cut up a whole lemon and remove the flesh from the rind*
2. Add the rind to a lidded jar and pour vinegar over the rind until your jar is full
3. Put the lid on the jar and store in a cupboard for about 2 days for the lemon to infuse the vinegar
4. Once infused, strain the infused vinegar into a spray bottle
5. Optional: Compost the lemon rind :)

*Add the lemon flesh to a pitcher of water to make yourself a refreshing summery drink!

To do a test-run I used the lemon infused vinegar, along with about 2 tbsp of baking soda, to clean the bathtub… it worked like a charm and the smell was great too :)

For cleaning my house, I use a variety of ingredients, all of which can be found in the grocery store, and most of which you can ingest no problem!

Typical ingredients:

• White vinegar
• Baking soda
• Hydrogen Peroxide

Occasional ingredients:

• Lemons/Lemon juice (if I have them and they’re cheap/in season)
• Alcohol
• Olive oil (a drop or two will help shine up wood surfaces!)

Do you have any go-to natural solutions for cleaning? I like to hear what other people use!

Shower Power

A little while ago, I tried to angle the shower head down when I was taking a shower. I prefer the stream to hit me more in the chest than the head and I can’t move back in my shower because it’s very narrow. It’s the kind of shower I picture on a space ship. I barely have enough room to bend to shave my legs. But anyway, I digress... I was trying to pivot the shower head downwards when I hear a snap and the shower head came flying off!! Turns out the shower head is fixed in one spot and doesn’t pivot at all. The fixture hit me in the head, and then I was assaulted by the thinnest, most powerful stream of water I have ever felt. It hurt!! To add insult to injury, it was a work day morning and I was fully lathered with soap and conditioner in my hair when this happened. I used my palm to deflect the hard spray of water then turned the water pressure down as low as I could, and had to rinse off with the most pathetic dribble of water - at least it didn't hurt... Needless to say, this was not a good start to my day.

I thought the shower head had just popped off, but it turned out one of the rings with threading on it had snapped so it couldn't reattach. I considered buying a new shower head – something I could bring with me to the condo – but then thought better of it and tried to fix the broken ring instead.

Before I go telling you what I did, just keep in mind that I’m not a plumber and know nothing about plumbing. Also, I’m sorry my shower looks like the scene of a horror movie. This is the result of bad lighting, a not-so-clean shower, and a crappy iPhone picture...

So I tried to glue the ring back together using Gorilla Glue. It didn’t work too well. The ring seemed to be holding when I screwed it on, but the shower head fell off again when I turned on the water. Booo.

Kevin and I headed over to Home Depot where I bought a replacement ring. I think it was about $5. I thought I would have to buy a whole new shower head and was quite pleased to hear I could just get the ring. We got back to my place, attached the older shower head with the new ring, and guess what? Now my shower head pivots! Faaaaancy. The beating I took from the shower head the day before was definitely worth being able to now swivel my shower head

How To Get Rid of Fruit Flies

This is by far the most effective method for getting rid of fruit flies that I’ve ever tried! It’s very easy and ridiculously inexpensive.

The old adage is “you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar”. I don’t know who came up with that, but it’s wrong wrong wrong! At least for fruit flies.

Here’s how the traps work:
The fruit flies are attracted to the vinegar. They travel down the funnel into the cup, where they get stuck. They’re not able to get back out through the funnel tip. The dish soap breaks the surface tension on the vinegar, so any flies that touch the vinegar immediately fall in and drown within 5 seconds. Those that don’t fall in straight away eventually meet their demise as well. Because this trap kills them very quickly, no breeding takes place, which is why it works so well and fast. I’ve also tried this trap with different kinds of juice, but vinegar works the best.


Here’s what you need:

1. a plastic cup (I prefer clear ones so I can see how well my trap is working!)
   
2. paper
   
3. tape (ideally masking because it sticks better than clear)
   
4. scissors
   
5. dish soap (one drop per cup)
   
6. white vinegar (no more than 1/4 cup per trap)

Here’s how you make it:

1. Create a cone out of the paper. You want the tip of the cone to be about halfway down your cup, so make it as deep as needed. Use the tape to secure the cone.
   
2. Cut a very small bit off the end of the tip. The hole should be no wider than the width of a pencil. Put the cone aside for a moment.
   
3. Pour vinegar in your cup until it is about 2cm/1 inch high
   
4. Pour in 1 drop of dish detergent. Swirl gently but don’t create any bubbles
   
5. Put the paper cone in the cup, tip down. Tape the cone to the cup and ensure there are no gaps.
   
6. Optional step: Cut away the excess paper above the tape. This will make your trap smaller and more discrete.

That’s it!

To give you some perspective, the glass above is very small, probably less than 200mL total. This trap is from work.

There is s horrible fruit fly infestation at my work (yuck!) and this works like a charm every. single. time. I place 5 or 6 traps around the different work areas in my end of the building.

Ideal placement of the traps:

1. You may be tempted to put it right beside your fruit bowl or green bin, but don’t. Between the trap and the fruit/compost, the flies will choose the latter. Put the traps on the other side of the room and you’ll have much better results!
   
2. Put the traps where there isn't a lot of people traffic. Maybe on the fridge or on top of the cabinets. Somewhere high and out of the way is ideal.

When and how to replace the traps:
At my work, I change the traps about 2x/week, but we have a lot of flies there. I’ve noticed that the traps are most effective on day 1 and 2, so if you have a lot, you may want to switch out the vinegar 2-3x/week as well. To change the traps, just remove the tape holding the funnel to the cup, pour out the old buggy vinegar (ewww…), rinse the cup, pour in the new vinegar and dish soap, and then re-tape the funnel back on the cup! I reuse the funnels over and over. As long as they don’t get (too) wet, they’re good for many many uses! If you give this trap a try, let me know how it goes! I’d love to hear some feedback.

Emily-Jane

Fridge Door Switcheroo

I’m finally (mostly) moved into my apartment. There have been a few hiccups because the place was newly renovated by the brand new owners so I’m the first tenant, but things are coming along now.

One issue was the fridge door. The fridge is in the left corner and fridge door opens from the left side…not very functional.

I was lucky enough to have Monday off, so I took the opportunity to switch the doors so they open from the right instead of the left. I’m also lucky enough to have a Dad who gives me tools at Christmas, so I had everything necessary to make this switcheroo happen… a ratchet set and a drill were my main tools of choice here.

So with my drill and ratchet set in hand, I removed all of the bits and bobs…

Until I ended up with this… Fridge and freezer doors on the floor and my fridge (still full of food) and freezer (full of frozen veggies and booze) sittin’ naked. In hindsight, I maybe should have emptied the fridge/freezer before starting, especially considering I had to stack the fridge on a pile of books to get to the screws on the bottom… but meh! Nothing fell out, no food spilled… all’s good in the neighbourhood.

After removing the doors, I removed the handles and switched them to the right side. Following that, I reattached the doors. All in all, it took me about 40 minutes. Not bad I’d say. Here’s my new functional fridge doors!

Have you ever switched the opening on your fridge/freezer doors? Apparently you can’t switch all doors, so I’m happy these doors are reversible!

DIY: Recovering Bar Stool Seats

My parents’ house has a breakfast bar off of the main counter in the kitchen. My mom bought some clearance bar stools for the area, but didn’t like the fabric on them, so she recovered them. The stools are 12 years old now, and the fabric has worn away in some areas, so my mom wanted to recover the seats with new fabric.
Here is the before picture. I know the fabric is pretty dingy-looking now, but I actually really like the colours in it.

Here’s the “wear” I was talking about… and this is one of the not-so-bad areas. One of the bar stools get sat on a lot more than the others and had a big ol’ flap of fabric hanging open on it.
Note: the cats in my parents house love these stools… Riley in particular. So when my dad removed the seat tops, we got to witness Riley jump up on the bare metal square. She looked horrified. I don’t know what she was trying to do, but it was hilarious. I mean, c’mon, Riley! Just look at it… that can’t be very comfortable.
After yanking out dozens of staples to remove the old fabric, we were left with this. We kept the old fabric in place. In the photo on the right, the seat isn’t actually attached, I just placed the seat on the square in the picture above. There was thin black poster-board type paper that originally covered the bottom of the seats and my mom managed to retain it in good shape when she recovered the chairs in 2000. This time the poster-board circles didn’t quite hold up. I advised her to get some new poster-board from Dollarama, then use an old poster-board circle as template to draw a new circle. Worked like a charm














The new fabric my mom chose isn’t really my cup o’ tea. The colour is very similar to the original fabric, but it’s got a swirly design on it.  I probably would’ve chosen  a grey (or other neutral) graphic print.
Here’s the finished product! She’s very happy with it. Another side note: My mom bought 2 of these stools in black, but the third one was originally gold. She spray painted it black and I had NO IDEA it was ever another colour. Oh the magic of spray paint...
Have you ever recovered a seat? It’s not as hard as it looks!

Happy Valentine's Day! Cookie edition...

Kevin and I don't make a big production out of Valentine's Day. I like wearing something red or pink and baking some cute heart cookies, but that's about it. I don't think we've ever gone out to dinner on Heart Day, but we are this year. I guess there's a first for everything!


Kevin loves shortbread cookies, so I usually end up making them for him for Christmas, his birthday and Valentine's Day. My absolute favourite recipe to use is from The Joy of Baking. This recipe has served me extremely well and I highly recommend it!


Shortbread Cookies:

INGREDIENTS

2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt

1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (60 grams) powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar

1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract (I use a about 1.5 teaspoons)

Note: use the best butter and vanilla you can afford - it makes a difference!

INSTRUCTIONS

In a separate bowl whisk the flour with the salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes).  Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated.  Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour or until firm.  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) with the rack in the middle of the oven.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough into a 1/4 inch (.6 cm) thick circle.  Cut into rounds or other shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter.  Place on the prepared baking sheets and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. (This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked.) Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until cookies are very lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Shortbread cookies will keep in an airtight container for about a week or they can be frozen.

Makes about 20 shortbread cookies.

I put the cookies I baked into a glass jar ($1 from Dollarama) and made a little label to go on the front. I bought a $0.29 piece of striped pink card stock from Michael's to frame a white piece of card stock that I decorated with adhesive stickers (kind of like stick-on tattoos, but for paper - $1 from Dollarama). I used a star-burst hole punch at the top of the label, strung a piece of silver ribbon through it, then tied the ribbon around the lid and curled the ends. It's not super fancy, but it's just a way to personalize a cookie jar... and it only cost me  $2.29. 

Do you have anything planned for your sweetie tonight?

Tutorial: DIY iPhone Charging Station

Kevin loves his iPhone. It's probably his most prized procession. For his birthday I wanted to make part of his present, in addition to the store-bought present he got. I was inspired by something similar I found on Pinterest, but in Canada our plugs are flush (not indented) to the wall and I was worried about the material touching the charger prongs and causing a fire.

Enter this idea!

I had an empty shampoo bottle sitting on the edge of the bathtub when inspiration hit. "Would an iPhone fit in there?" I thought. Yes! It would. And so began my project :-)

iPhone Charging Station Tutorial

TOOLS:

• Shampoo bottle
• Scissors or utility knife
• Sand paper
• Fabric
• Marker
• Modge Podge
• Card stock (optional)
• Glue gun (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Step 1: Peel off the label and clean the bottle inside and out. 
Step 2: Cut off the top of the bottle
Step 3: Draw the outline using a thin marker. Don't worry if you scribble all over it because this will be covered up.

Step 4: Using scissors or a utility knife, carefully cut out your outline. Tip: To ensure you cut the right sized hole for where the charger plug goes into the wall, trace the outline directly onto the bottle. 

Step 5: The edges will be rough, so go ahead and sand those down until they're smooth. Tip: If your bottle is light coloured and your fabric is dark, run a dark permanent marker over the cut edges of the bottle. This will help give a more finished look.

Step 6: Cut a piece of fabric slightly larger than the diameter of your bottle. To do this, I just laid my bottle on my fabric and rolled it over, then cut about 2 inches of excess fabric around all sides to give myself some wiggle room.

Step 7: Ensuring the seam is in the back (this part goes against the wall so no one will see it), start gluing your fabric to the bottle using Modge Podge. This is the method I used to wrap the bottom of the bottle. When you're done wrapping and gluing, rest the bottle upside down to dry until the fabric is dry and stiff. I rested my bottle upside down on a paper towel holder.

Step 8: Now that the fabric is dry and stiff, use sharp scissors or a utility knife to cut away the excess fabric. Cut as close to the fabric as possible. 

That's it! You're done.

Bonus Points: I went one step further and added a little Apple logo for some pizzazz. I free-hand drew the apple and stem onto a piece of thin paper using a thin marker. I placed that paper backward onto the back of my glitter card stock and then traced around the apple using a heavy hand so that the apple became embossed onto the card stock. I cut out the apple and used a glue gun to adhere it to the front of my bottle.

This project was fun, easy, and very inexpensive. I spent just over $2 on this pretty fishtail fabric and only used about 25 cents worth of it! This project can also be slightly altered for any brand of phone - you could even do it for a slim point-and-shoot camera! It's a great way to keep cords and counter clutter to a minimum.

DIY Paper Heart Bookmark

I took a stab this week at replicating one of my many pins from my Crafts and DIY folder in Pinterest. I've been hoping to turn some of my crafty pins into stocking stuffers for Christmas, and thought this was a good time to try some of them out. 

The paper heart bookmark.The original source for this pin is from Bloomize. Cute, right?

[via]

I have some craft paper at home in the same shade as above so my first attempt was using that paper. That was my first mistake - using craft paper. It was way too thick and didn't fold crisply at all. My second mistake was using a whole sheet of craft paper (8 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches) lol. I wish the instructions came with dimensions! My heart I ended up with was literally bigger than my hand with ugly folds... no good. In the garbage it went.

My second attempt was a bit better. After seeing the picture below, I tried again using a piece of magazine paper. I just found a pretty ad and used that. My starting square was about 4x4 inches. And for the record, I would definitely not advise making this with paper that is any bigger than 5x5 inches if you're planning on using this heart for book marking purposes. 

[via]

In hindsight, I think the heart from the first photo is made out of origami paper (or at least something a lot thinner than what I had). 

Here's my version:

It's cute, but I'm not sure yet if it's stocking stuffer worthy... I'll have to see how my other pin attempts turn out before I decide! I might also try making these with origami paper. I used to make paper cranes all the time as a kid. Oh the memories...

What do you think?

Kitchen Cabinet Cork Board Tutorial

I love pinning crafty projects on Pinterest. I've pinned quite a few crafty projects so I decided I should try re-creating  a few of the pins I have. That's what this post is all about. 


This project all started with this pin, which is a great idea for storing notes, recipes, shopping lists, etc. I wanted to do something similar, but jazz up the board with paint or fabric... A little while later I saw Lindsay's tutorial for adding some pizazz to tacks by attaching pretty buttons to them and saw Jenn's post about painting her board. I mashed together all three ideas for this DIY.


I went to Walmart and got a cork board, then I headed to Michael's where I bought Gorilla glue and some prism-y jewels (I think it's for jewellery), and got the tacks from Dollarama. 

The Gorilla glue takes about 48 hours to fully cure, so I went ahead and jazzed up the tacks first. 

As per the instructions, I wet one surface, then put a small amount of glue on the other surface, and then pressed them together. I put the tacks aside and resumed the project 2 days later. 

Once the tacks were done curing, I taped off my board. I wanted diagonal stripes and I wanted a border so that the paint wouldn't go all the way to the edge. I did this because I thought it would look tidier and have less potential for leakage under the painters tape. 

I wanted to get an ombre effect (dark to light) with the paint and I wanted a bit of sparkle, so I used varying combinations of black, white and silver crafter's paint I already had on hand. I made sure to really press down on the tape in the corners to reduce any incidence of leakage. 

I peeled off the tape while it was still wet and I held my breath hoping there wasn't any leakage....

And I was SO happy with the results! Phew! I couldn't stop staring at it for a few minutes :) But once I could, I moved on to the next step: attaching the board to the cabinet. I didn't want to make any holes in the cabinet and the board was really light, so I just used double sided table along the back border.

Although, I must note that I would've better reinforced the board to the cabinet if there weren't already a lip around the edge on to which the board fit perfectly. Seriously, this board was made for this cabinet!

After attaching some notes and a (fake) grocery list, here's what the cabinet looks like now

I'm very happy with the results. My parents both like it - my dad especially likes that I didn't drill any holes into the cabinet lol. And my mom says she likes the sparkles from the silver paint.

Here is a side by side before and after. 

Total things needed for this project and their costs:

Cork board $9.44

Tacks $1.00

Jewels $2.99

Gorilla glue $3.50 (was originally $6.99 but I had a 50% coupon)

Paint (already had)

Painters tape (already had)

Painting utensil (already had)

Double sided tape (already had)

Total cost for this project: $16.93!

Difficulty* of the project : 2

(*1=breathing, 10= tightrope walking across high-rises on a windy day) 

Style At Home - November Roundup

The November issue of Style At Home is about easy holiday style. Sign me up! Christmas is the one holiday where my family goes all out so I really look forward to it each year. This issue had some great home tours and ideas for holiday decorating! Here is what caught my eye. 

Alison Lovel's Swiss traditions influence her holiday decor. Below, she created a modern Christmas tree by cementing tree branches in a pot and decorating them with a neutral mix of gold, silver and off-white ornaments. I've always been a fan of non-traditional Christmas trees and love the look of this

Alain Doom and Chip Hamann are an Ottawa couple who had designer Irene Langlois help design their space. I love this shot of the dining room! Irene used leftover marble tiles (from another reno in the house) to create a new surround for the fireplace. The mantle is beautiful!  The home owners found these vintage Charles Hollis Jones chairs online. I love that they have translucent legs and they pair very well with the pedestal table. The wall colour is also fantastic - it's a warm gray called Sandy Hook by Benjamin Moore.

In this home, designed by Maureen Sanbord, she integrated the large appliances into the overall look of the kitchen to make them as discreet and seamless as possible. I love what they've done to the range hood in the picture below. The cabinetry, in general, is beautiful and I love the subway tile backsplash.

Good news in the world of kitchens: Updating kitchens and bathrooms can be very costly, and are usually the most expensive home renovations. If you already have structurally sound cabinets, a product like this (and maybe some new hardware!) might go a long way in giving your kitchen an updated look. I've heard it over and over again that the easiest and least expensive way to update a kitchen is to paint out the cabinets white and give them new hardware.

 

And finally, I love this napkin ring. It looks so DIY-able! I see a project like this in my future :-)

Tutorial: DIY French Door Curtain Alternative

At the beginning of the month I blogged about the lack of cover on my bedroom's French door. Unfortunately I have to pass by the door to do pretty much anything in my room so the lack of privacy was an issue. 

My interim solution was to drape a curtain over the top of the door... As you can see, it was more of an eyesore than a solution. 

I pinned around for ideas but kept in the back of my mind what Daniel from Manhattan Nest did to his French doors in his old apartment. I knew that solution would let the light come through, be easily removable, and most importantly, look great (hopefully!).

So I looked into his original source (Jessica, from How About Orange) for the project and it turns out it really is an easy process. I made a few modifications to their process because both Daniel and Jessica said they made way too much of the paste that sticks the fabric to the doors.

Here is my revised paste:

1. Boil 2 cups of water
2. While the water is boiling, stir 1/8 cup corn starch into 1/4 cup cold water
3. Add the boiled water and mix it up
4. Wait for it to cool down

While I waited for the paste to cool, I took the measurements from one glass panel on the door and used those measurements to make a template on a thin piece of cardboard (think cereal box thickness). The fabric I used was a basic white 100% cotton twin bed sheet and I ironed it thoroughly. Using my template and a pencil, I outlined my template onto the fabric, but drew it about 0.5 cm bigger on each side of the template so that I wouldn't have any gaps once the fabric was pasted onto the glass. It's definitely a good idea to test paste one or two pieces before you draw out and/or cut the rest of the fabric. That's how I figured out to cut the fabric slightly bigger than the glass panel. 

Once the paste was cool, I slathered it onto the fabric with a pastry brush until the fabric was fully saturated. I worked on big plastic bag so I didn't make a mess. I placed the fabric on the door and used an old metropass (any plastic card will do) to gently smooth out the bubbles. Have paper towel or a cloth on hand because most of the paste will leak out! 

I let it dry over night and am SO pleased with the results!!

Here is a close up of the fabric

And here's what the door looks like from the other side of my door with the hallway light off and on

Total things needed for this project and their costs:

Cornstarch (already had)

Water 

Fabric (bought a 100% cotton white sheet for $8)

Bowl (already had)

Pastry brush or paint brush (already had)

Sharp scissors (already had)

Paper towel or cloth (already had)

Total cost for this project: $8!

Difficulty* of the project : 3

(*1=breathing, 10= tightrope walking across high-rises on a windy day)

Notes: Even halving the recipe, I still had a lot of paste left over, but I wouldn't have reduced it any further. 

Here is the before and after side by side so you don't have to scroll up and down :o)