All We Are Is Dust In The Wind...{Quick Tip Tuesday}

Have you ever heard this one before, "Dust is primarily composed of human skin"? Well, that's just gross!  So I did a little research and I can get on board with what I found here:

http://www.livescience.com/32337-is-house-dust-mostly-dead-skin.html

I still don't like dust. Here's a Quick Tip....

I hate to spend money on something that just gets thrown away. I used to dust with paper towels or those cute fluffy mitts you buy specifically for the job.  One day while doing laundry, I had an epiphany! Used dryer sheets get thrown out anyway, so why not get another use out of them first? I started hoarding them and stuffing them all over the place. I have some in the side door pocket of my car, under the couch cushions, in my dresser drawers and sometimes we find them in places I forgot that I stashed them. 

I keep a few in my car door
underneath my umbrella.

One of the main functions of a dryer sheet is to prevent static in your clothes. This quality is great for dusting because the dust sticks to the fibers. After they've been used to dust with, you can feel good about throwing them away. Happy Dusting!



                                      You Can Do It!

Growing Pains

Several months ago, I started this blog with an idea in mind. I wanted a place to be creative and share some ideas. Clearly, I had no idea what I was doing and decided to just dive in...yikes! I wasn't thrilled with the look of my page but wanted to get it up and running. Finally, I've decided to give it a makeover! 

Over the past 5 months I've had a lot of fun figuring this whole thing out. I have enjoyed hearing feedback from friends and coming up with new ideas to blog about. One of my favorite features of Blogger is that I'm able to track my audience and see who is reading my posts {not specifically who, but in general where they come from}.  I've reached 10 countries with over 1,300 views! I'd love to grow my audience so please feel free to share, share, share. 

I'm in the process of figuring out how to add Instagram and Twitter gadgets so it can be shared more easily. You can even enter your email address in the window at the top right and you'll receive a message each time a new post is shared! Lastly, I plan to create a Jane Of All Trades Face Book page so that my friends who are not interested in seeing my frequent post will not be inundated with them.

I'd love to hear your comments below. Let me know where I've been successful and where I've failed. Are the fonts and colors easy to read? Is it easy to access previous posts? How does it look on your phone vs. on a computer? 

Thank you for bearing with me while I work through these growing pains. One of these days, I will figure out how to share a post to FB with the correct photo appearing with the post. Until then, who knows what will show up where, and isn't that half the fun?

I Saw It On FB So It Must Be True!

Do you ever see How To videos on Face Book and think, "Hey, I'll share that to my timeline and I'll come back to it when I have time and try it!"? I do it all the time except I almost never go back and try it. When I saw this particular video, I decided it was time.

{This is the link to the video I used}
https://www.facebook.com/cleverly.me/videos/525714507632328/

I have a gas oven that has never been properly cleaned. I do a lot of baking and when I make a mess or spill something, I clean it up so it's really never gotten very gross. Except for the glass door. When did this happen? And why won't it 

come clean? I didn't want to use a harsh chemical that might fill my house with an acrid smell or noxious fumes. When I saw that FB video I saw an opportunity to solve my problem!

I watched the video three times to make sure I wouldn't mess it up. There aren't any exact measurements listed, just baking soda, vinegar and water. So I mixed together approximate equal parts. I dabbed it all over 

the bottom of the oven and on the inside of the door.

Just like in the video, I placed the unused mixture on the oven rack and closed the door.

Then I set the temperature for 100 degrees Celsius. The lowest temperature setting on my oven is 200, so again, I approximated.  I set the timer for 45 minutes and waited...                                                     

When I opened the door, this is what I saw....so I started wiping with a scrubby sponge. Hmmm...I thought the baked on grit and grime was going to wipe right off.

It was not a quick and easy clean up. The baking soda made it all very slick and slippery to clean up and took lots of rinsing out of my sponge. The bottom of the oven came quite clean but it had not been very bad to begin with. Once I thought I'd rinsed out all of the residue I was left with a slight haze all over the inside of the oven after it had dried and had to take a clean sponge to it again.

This ended up being quite a bit of work considering I didn't get the result I was hoping for. 

After lots of elbow grease, I got a small area almost clean.

This left me wondering a couple of things. 1.Did I have the oven temp set incorrectly? 2.Were my ingredient measurements wrong? 3.How baked on was the grime in the oven shown in the video? 4.Has anyone tried this and it's worked?

Please feel free to share any videos or magic potions you've tried {that have worked} in the comments section below.  I'd give it another go!

Stop sharing those FB and Youtube videos without trying them out!

You Can Do It!

Quick Tip Tuesday!

With three females in our house, I'm embarrassed to say how many pairs of boots we have between us. When it was just me, I bought fancy boot inserts to keep my tall leather boots looking nice. They're pricey so of course my teenager's boots go without. 

                           

After reminding my 15 year old on several occasions to "Prop up your boots so the faux leather doesn't crack", I grabbed a fat metal clip and attached them to each other.  

                           

Problem solved!

                         

You Can Do It!

Quick Tip Tuesday!

    It's so fun finding new spots to store items. 

    Try using shower caddies inside your cabinet doors or 

   suctioned onto a mirror or window.

This caddy comes with suction
cups and secures to a window
or mirror nicely.

I removed the suction cups from this
caddy and added adhesive hooks to the
inside of my kitchen cabinet. The hooks
fit nicely in the holes on the back side of the
caddy. Be sure to measure the distance
between the holes and mark that distance
on the cabinet door before adhering the
hooks.

You Can Do It!

Just Another Manic Monday...And I'm Killing It!

Most of my friends dread Mondays. As a stay-at-home mom, I look forward to Mondays. Don't get me wrong, I love having my family home on the weekends, but Monday is my day to regroup, to run errands {on my own} and get everything set for the week ahead.

Each Monday begins with dropping off four kids at two schools followed by a quick stop at home for some old fashioned oatmeal and fruit. I feel like if I start my week out eating healthy, then I'm killing it! Next stop, the gym for Cardio Kickboxing and a little socialization with the other women who are killing it. Depending on the sweat factor, I hit the dry cleaners, bank, grocery store, WalMart and post office. Home for a quick shower, lunch, make the bed, do the laundry, load the dishwasher, make various appointments and off to pick up four kids at two schools. If all of that gets done then that's when I know I'm killing it.

Things don't always go as planned. On this particular Monday, I got in the car to drive the kiddos to school {in my pjs} and half way down our street the gas light came on in my car. Let me just clarify, I wear my pjs to drive the kids to school but I do NOT get out of the car under any circumstances while wearing said pjs. Today would be the day that I became that stay-at-home mom who wears her pjs in public. Oh well, I'm still killing it.

After dropping off my younger daughter and our two neighbors at their school, my older daughter and I chatted about her week. And then it hit me. This was Catholic Schools week and I seemed to remember an email announcing that the teachers and staff would be outside the school delivering coffee and doughnuts to the parents. Did I happen to mention that I was wearing my pjs? Still killing it!

I narrowly avoided contact with all teachers and staff and hurried on my way to the gas station. Once safe and sound back at home I wondered how many parents passed by and saw me pumping gas in my pink flannel pjs. {Of course that little metal lever thingy on the gas pump handle had been removed so I couldn't sit in my car while it filled.}

Breakfast was a success so I changed and headed to the gym. Monday's class starts at 9:15. I arrived at 8:45 so I could get some time in on the treadmill. Remember I mentioned it was Catholic Schools Week? Well, my younger daughter's school was supposed to go tubing this day. We received a notice the night before that it would be postponed if the weather were too warm and the ski resort couldn't make snow. It was about 45 degrees when I dropped her off so when she asked me if I thought she should bring her boots, I told her not to bother, it was too warm. Sure enough, as soon as I got on the treadmill, I received a text from her asking me to bring her boots to school. Now, when my kids forget something at home, I don't bring it to them, how else will they learn? But when it's my fault, I bite the bullet and do it. I raced back to her school and returned to the gym by 9:20, 5 minutes late for class. For that hour {55 min} I don't think about my morning just stay in the moment and enjoy the workout. Ok, back on track, I'm killing it!

Next stop, home to shower and get the housework going. After a quick lunch, I'm dressed in real clothes, and hit all the usual spots for food, cash, stamps, dry cleaning and household supplies. I spend my day wondering how parents who go to their full time jobs get all of this done. I feel like my days are filled with errands and cooking or cleaning. I certainly find time for baking treats and doing crafty things but so do many of my friends who also hold down jobs and some even travel for work. They certainly are killing it!

After a long day, I return to both schools to pick up four kids and deliver everyone home safely. One of my daughters looks at me and says, "I like your outfit, I'd wear that". The other asks what's for dinner and when I reply, "Turkey tips and potatoes with veggies", she says Yay! And this is when I know for sure that on a manic Monday, I am killing it!

It's Monday, don't forget to be Awesome.

You Can Do It!

Introducing...Quick Tip Tuesday!

My House

I love my home, but it's small. It's not "tiny house small" but it's a modest 3 bedroom home without a ton of closets, cabinets or storage space. Rumor has it, that mysterious square in our bedroom closet ceiling is the "doorway" to some attic crawl space, but I'm not willing to investigate.

A "Tiny House"

This forces us {me} to come up with creative ways to store items. Ugh, right? I know, I don't love organizing, but I love organization. Storage items can be pricey too, but they don't have to be. Repurposing an item is so gratifying and fun! I've come up with a ton of ways to hide and store household items so I figured it might be helpful to share these tips. When your home {or office} is organized, all is well in the world.

I created Quick Tip Tuesday so I can be sure and post new tips frequently. Every Tuesday, I'll share a new tip that I think
you will find useful.

Thank you for checking it out!

                     {Repurposing Magazine Holders}

Use a pretty magazine holder to display items.
Here, my daughter uses one to store her
hair-styling supplies.

Use a plastic magazine holder to organize your
fridge/freezer.
Don't use cardboard ones because they won't
holdup to the humidity in the refrigerator.

Foils and plastic wraps fit nicely and don't get
lost in the cabinet.

                                                                                                       

Store lids in your tupperware cabinet neatly.
You can stack two or three beside each other.

There are too many ideas to list them all. Just fill them up and store on a bookshelf, turned around with the tall edge showing to keep your goodies hidden. I've also used them for saved receipts, bars of soap, extra bottles of shampoo, candles, batteries, reusable bags and manuals that come with electronics purchases. If you're a little OCD, buy fancy magazine holders, otherwise, shop the clearance section to find $1-2 holders. Most often, they'll be under your cabinets anyway!

You Can Do It!