NO SOLICITING

Our front door has been posted NO SOLICITING as long as I can remember. Since we have had the baby, I have a rather large sign that also says, 'please do not ring the doorbell'. I think it really speaks to the literacy rate of New Mexico that on average, we get about 2 solicitors a week, and the postman consistently rings the doorbell. I am usually polite and courteous...until last Monday.

Background:
Wyatt is getting all 4 of his first molars, so he's a cranky, fussy all out PITA right now.

On Monday, we were napping on the couch (preceded by 2 hours of crying). We were both clearly exhausted. I woke up when I heard someone walking up our front path. Our front door was open, but our screen door was locked. Not expecting anyone, I transferred Wyatt to the other chair, just in time to catch a young man walk up to our door, throw a flyer on the ground, ring the doorbell and walk away.

SERIOUSLY?!

I about flew out of the door and gave this him a piece of my mind. I was FUMING mad. Of course, the doorbell caused Wyatt to wake up (crying), so this young man was spared, for now.

I immediately got on the phone to the company listed on the flyer. Conveniently, no one answered. I am quite persistent though, and reached someone today. I was polite, but firm, and expressed my concerns. She graciously said thank you for the feedback, and she would look into it.

SO, that got me thinking. I wanted a new sign. I also wanted to post our property NO TRESPASSING. After doing some research, I found that the State of New Mexico is quite particular in its signage requirements for it to be legally binding. I made a larger version of this that conforms to the State of New Mexico standards that includes NO TRESPASSING verbiage.

In case anyone makes it past the NO TRESPASSING signs, this little beauty is now our front door decoration.

I am happy to share this with anyone if they would like a copy. I took it to FedEx Office and had it laminated for around $4.

Cheers.

J

Moldy Caulk

For years, moldy caulk around our main bathrooms' tub has plagued me. I have scrubbed...and scrubbed, and scrubbed some more. I finally gave up hope. For the last few months, I have just ignored it. We were driving back from a short weekend trip last weekend, and I made up my mind, I was going to get it clean.

(insert cheesy Western music)

Pinterest to the rescue.

You can find my original re-pin here: Moldy Caulk Solution

Sounded simple enough. I went to Sally's and picked up a small box of beauty coil. I went with the reinforced one, mostly because it sounded beefier. 

Here is an overall picture of the gross-ness. (I swear my bathroom is clean).

Supply picture. Bleach (usually not allowed in our house, that's why it's dust covered), a small dish, gloves and beauty coil. Simple enough, right? Total investment $3.19. 

After putting on those sexy yellow gloves, I poured the bleach into the shallow bowl, soaked a long piece of beauty coil in the bleach, and pushed it firmly into place. 

(cue anxious waiting music)

Ok, so not the magically white result I was expecting after an overnight soak, but certainly better. Time for round 2 and 3.

I ended up soaking the whole thing another 24 hours. I figured it wasn't going to hurt anything, and I had already made progress. 

Ok, so its not perfect, but it's better. After scrubbing with an old toothbrush and some bleach in those hard to get spots. I am happy with the result.

I am going to call this project a success. It is certainly better than it was before, with really minimal effort. I am sure if I put a little more elbow grease behind it, I might get it pristine again, but for now, I am at least not embarrassed to have people take a shower in there. 

You also might notice the hard water stains that are now absent from the original pictures. That's another post and another miracle tool for another day.

I would also like to point out, I got this little project done with minimal fuss from my son. I put him in the jumper, and he jumped away while I did all of this. I think there should be bonus points involved for that small feat.

Cheers. 

Who I Am

I have decided to start a blog.

In a land full of blogs about everything you can imagine, why add another one?

One word: Pinterest.

Yes, pinterest. Pinterest is the mecca for all things creative. I have learned a fair amount from Pinterest. Crafts, recipes, cleaning tips, organizational tools; the list goes on an on.

So why blog about what so many people are already blogging about? Simple. Let me give you my credentials.

CREDENTIALS
1. I am a stay-at-home-mom of a 1 year old. That should be enough credential right there, but if its not, read on.

2. I am 65% organized. I am not that stay-at-home-mom who has a spotlessly clean house, plans and prepares meals a week in advance, and who manages to look simply ravishing on a daily basis. If you are THAT stay-at-home-mom, you probably aren't reading this anyway since you don't need to learn how to organize, clean and cook.

3. My husband plays hockey 2-3 nights per week. Why does that give me cred? Because that means 2-3 nights per week we are somewhere between the hockey rink and home. We are either eating as we walk out the door, eating in the car, or some form of eating in between. Couple in the fact that many nights, that's when I do my errands so I have an extra set of (adult) hands to help. We are going. CONSTANTLY.

4. My house is not spotless. See Credential Point 1.

5. I like to do crafty things. Sometimes I have grand ideas (thank you Pinterest), but I am NOT a craft goddess. Part of my motivation for writing this stems from having picked up a tip on Pinterest on how to clean my bathtub. I wondered if a normal, regular, every day person, was really capable of the achieving those same 'before' and 'after' pictures.

So hopefully, somewhere out there, there is someone like me. A mom who isn't perfect.