Magic stain remover!

     This is what you're thinking: no way. No way will this really get stains out. But I am here to say YES WAY!

     I came across this as mostly an accident. I had read many different theories and recipes on removing stains, but none worked as well as my own. I had read that you always needed to put items through the washer on the hottest setting, and put in this and that and whatnot. The idea of using that much hot water was not my cup of tea!

     So I thought of my own, and good golly it works amazing! It has only two ingredients: boiling water and Oxyclean.

     Quick stain story: This past summer I washed my favorite pink shirt with blue jean shorts. Shirt turned completely blue. Fast forward to me throwing this shirt into a Rit dye remove wash. Somehow, the pink instead came out, and left the blue!

sad shirt

     It is sad how much I loved that shirt, but it went with a lot of things, comfortable, and just so dang cute! I was pretty upset that I ruined it. So finally I tried my magical stain remover, mostly because at this point, I had nothing else to lose. 

     I filled this small pot with about a half a cup of Oxyclean (I used that little scoop it comes with). 

     I then boiled water in my tea kettle. Once the water was ready, I poured it into the pot and gave it a quick stir before putting my shirt in. 

  

     Lo and behold! The shirt wasn't blue! I wouldn't believe it until I dried it. 

No blue?!

     Just check out this before and after!

     Since then, I have used this same cleaning recipe to other things, such as taking out pit stains from multiple shirts, food stains from paints, and everything else I seen to get all over myself! 

     Stayed tuned for the next chapter for this shirt! 

Cheers!

Adventures with Dye!

There are some things I did accomplish this summer, including updating some of my clothing!

My first project was one of my favorite sweatshirts. It was given to me by my brother's girlfriend, and it is just so dang comfortable! One morning I was leaving to go out for the day with my parents, wearing this sweatshirt, and my mother informed me that I had a bleach stain on the back! So for months it hung in my closet, unworn because of that stain! Finally I took matter into my own hands, and decided it was time for a dye bath! 

I started with a dark blue. I thought this color would work nice with the original color, as opposed to trying to make it blend in. 

ooh la la!

The stain was in the lower back region, so I tied it off above the stain so I could keep track of how far up the dye would go. 

Ready to go!

Then I let it soak!

Check that color!

Then a nice rinse, along with a quick spin in the dryer! 

rinse rinse

This was my finished product!

Why, hello there

                                     

But the stain was STILL THERE! 

The Worst

So, after some creative thought, I took to my craft shelf in the basement and dug out some fabric paints, and did some free styling over the stain. Not much else I could do, so anything would be better than nothing! I added some more detail, let it dry, and voila, my sweatshirt was reinvented! 

Some fun design

What stain??

My next dye project was simple, and unexciting. I had older yoga pants that were not-so-black anymore. I would never notice this until after I put them on and wore them out somewhere. They just needed a little dye bath to darken the color! So I purchased some black dye, and got to soaking!

Warning: black dye takes a looong time to rinse out. My washer was on the fritz, so throwing it into the machine wasn't going to be an option. Rinse and rinse and rinse, finally I just decided to throw them into the dryer until they were dry enough to hang on the line. Once the washer was fixed, I threw them into an all black wash, and now they look great! 

It was nice to revamp some of my old clothing, and turn them into things that would again be wearable! 

Until next time! 

If Summer could talk...

Well, Summer has just about come and gone.

     Quick update post on my summer: Classes start next week and so ends my "free" time. So what have I been up to? Between turning 21, working two jobs and maintaining my status as a student athlete, free time was actually pretty rare. But not to fear, I did a lot of fun things! Or, necessary fun things! I became good friends with Rit Dyes and refashioned and restored some old favorites, which will be in the next post! 

Did I accomplish everything I wanted to do this summer?

     No, I will be honestly when I say there was a lot of things I did not get to do. I tried to pull out my mother's old sewing machine and just teach myself one day. Well, it fumed (literally) and zero progress was made. So maybe save that for a day when a brand new Singer magically appears on my doorstep? Maybe.

     Did I blog more like I said I wanted to? No, because if I'm not making new things, then I do not have much to blog about! But that is something I would like to change!

     Am I excited for Fall? Meh. I love boots, I love that cold crisp air. But I hate winter and I hate snow and I really hate being cold. But a new season brings new opportunities, which is exciting!

So long for now!

Summer Fun and Updates

Hello once again!
I am finally on my summer break! I've been home for a few weeks now, and it's nice to finally be getting into the groove of working again. My next favorite part about moving back home is being able to organize things again. That is right, now that I am a college commuter, I no longer need to have 2 sets of everything. Nice to finally clean and organize and get rid of the things I just do not have room for!

Things so far have been going swimmingly, minus getting pneumonia and a slight cold. I have a lot of goals for this summer, and I am so excited to get to start some of them! A couple wonderful life updates:

1. Armoire is officially gone! Sold to family friends. I had HAD it with that thing. I cleaned and organized and donated so the darned thing would not be necessary. My room looks so much bigger and better now! Another reason for this was because my parents wanted me to have my grandmother's bedroom set, since mine was purchased at an auction and held no real meaning.

2. Pinterest. That is just my new jam. I can't get enough! I like it much better than Stumble-upon, because it is just so well organized. Here is a board for my crafts, here's my board for organization, x, y, and z. Follow my Pinterest! I have some sweet stuff up there!

3. From Pinterest, I have found someone who is one of my biggest inspirations! Her name is Jillian Owens, and she is a Refashionista, and her blog is right here!! I just love all the things she does with her thrift shop finds! She has inspired me to start refashioning my own clothing! I am very excited to start hacking away at my own pile of clothing to be refashed! (Sorry for all the '!!,' I just really am excited :-D)

4. Another thing to note: I love working hard and making money, and I love saving money. I truly hate spending it. This is where my "I can make that!" attitude comes from. If I think I can make it, I'm not going to buy it. Once again, Pinterest has been huge in this way. I see all the fashions I love, and I use what I already have to make my own!

5. From point 4, I've also been on a health food binge. The idea that there are chemicals in everything stress.me.out. So many chemicals in everything that we use everyday. Shampoo, lotion, food, bleh! It's too much for me. So I've been trying my very best to make things that I use everyday so one day I maybe won't get cancer. So for instance, today I made my very own moisturizer. Three simple ingredients, and it's actually edible! Best part, it probably cost me $1 in total!

So that is my big update! Hopefully my summer will be filled with many wonderful things!

Okay, I've rambled enough for now! Until next time!

So, that happened....

As you (which right now is no one, since I'm pretty sure I talk to myself in these things) know, I haven't written anything in basically a year. Work, practice and the eventual school got me down.

 But! I am feeling very inspired and am hoping to create a following.....once I get the guts to actually make this blog public.

So for now! I am leaving you (no one) with the promises that things will be coming! Such as an update blog about where I've been and what I've been doing in the past several months......so for now, Cheers!

Forgive me....

It has been a long time since I have last posted. Spring is always ridiculously busy for me. Lots of track, and not a lot of creativity. But now! It is summer! and I am doing wonderful things.....when I am not working....which isn't very often, to be honest. But! Things will happen! I will do wonderful things! For instance, I am getting new furniture for my room! AKA my parents want me to have my grandmother;s set and not the random set we bought at an auction. But Since cleaning out much of my things, I believe I will finally be able to sell my armoire!! So exciting! That means more room for fun activities! My room right now is very cramped, and isn't good for company and guests. So hopefully I can turn it into a relaxing environment this summer! More to come later!
Cheers!

So... I Baked! And Made Squares!

Yes! I accomplished yet another task on my huge list. Sadly, this is my very last free week before classes start up again next Tuesday :-(. I may have mentioned this before, but I feel like my creative juices just really flow better when I'm at home; I have everything at my disposal, such as my yarns or a nice clean oven...but hey, that's what the summer months are for!

So what did I make, you might ask? I have no idea what one would call it. I took some ingredients from around the house, put them in a cupcake pan, and set the oven for 375.

I knew we had some cookie mix, and my sister had some leftover eggnogg. So those were my two ingredients, though I did put some oil in there for good measure.

Added the nog until it was about pancake batter consistency. I call this "My Experiment" because I didn't measure anything, though I believe I put in about 2 and 3/4 cups of the mix....or maybe it was 1 and 3/4? Eh, I'm not super concerned.

 Into the pan the mix went!

Just a quick bake, since it was an experiment.

little bit of nogg for myself...mmm

Add a pinch of one of my faves

are they done?

nope....not done

back into the pan the pieces (that I didn't eat) go

At this point, I was semi disappointed. I didn't use any eggs, because I figured there was enough in the eggnogg, which may be why they were very custard like in the middle. Or I just used too much nogg. Either or. I put some of the pieces back in the pan, and then put them back in for another 15 min or so.

more done than previous...

....kinda

And that was my One (Left side of photo) , the one that actually came out of the five. It tasted real good though.

and my favorite part (but not really). Dishes. Blegh. But overall, it was fun. I wanted cupcakes, but my dad said they were more like muffins. I am satisfied with that.

Right! I also made lots of squares. Best thing to do when you love a shirt but can't give it up because you're a crazy pack rat like me you for some reason can't is to make it into a quilt square! Takes up SO MUCH LESS SPACE and makes you feel good! I got lots of squares, and even a few balls of yarn for my t-shirt rugs I only ever do when I'm bored.

I also got a wonderful inspirational idea to make some baby bibs out of the leftover t-shirt parts. Maybe another project for later? Debating. They would be so adorable, but I don't know how many people would want to use a cotton bib for a child. I feel like it would stain easily and just get real gross real fast. But it could be a cute apron for an older child? Oh, the possibilities :-)

Cheers!