Sick Puppy

I added the hood and antenna.  So much better!

The last 12 hours have been filled with dog poop.
Sorry, but it's true.
I started last night around 8 when, well, Oscar had diarrhea.
It happened every hour, all night long and into this morning.  Probably the worst smelling poop I've ever had to smell... and I used to change 30 diapers a day, Monday through Friday, working at the daycare.
It was partly funny because he also had gas- so he would go, fart, and then get scared from his fart.  But, then it wasn't funny because he would splatter everything in sight, including the wall.  Then, it was all over him, so he had to have a bath- and repeat 10 times.
We finally broke down and called the vet.  They aren't open Sundays, so it referred us to an emergency vet in Overland Park.
Ugh.  Really?  I was worried we'd have to pay a lot.
However, a consultation was only $76 (why not $75?  Weird).
The normal vet is $50.  I felt better.
We went in, all the women loved him (but he wouldn't smile for them like he usually does).
He leaked everywhere, and they ran some tests.
Diagnosis- Drama Queen.
Not really, but really.  They said his GI bacteria is off from stress or any change- remodeling (yes, we were doing that yesterday), new treats (yes, he got new bones Friday), or being alone.  He hasn't wanted to eat or drink and most of his day yesterday was occupied by bone-gnawing.
Got him some drugs, some fluids from dehydration (they inject it into his skin and his body slowly absorbs it- it looks like camel hump and is cool to the touch.  It's hilarious!  Tech said not to be alarmed if it slumps to the side, also hilarious), and they put him on a bland diet of chicken breasts and white rice (which I now have to cook.  Ask me, sounds like an upgrade from dog food.  Must be nice being a sick puppy!)
However, his tush is going to probably continue to leak until tonight.
Fantastic.
I already tried to put a diaper on him.  Didn't work.

In the midst of my frustration (and diarrhea jeans from the ride there), I started to realize how thankful I am that it was just this.  I was sitting in the waiting room-duh, waiting- for Oscar to be done and a few dogs came in reallly sick.  They had to bring in a gurney for one (sad, but it looked really funny to be honest.  They strapped him down and wheeled him away and the dog had a look on his face like "this is ridiculous") and another one I think was being put to sleep.  The lady brought him in, didn't have to fill out paperwork like everyone else, sat with her HUGE dog, held his neck and gave him a hug, and started bawling.  I started praying for her and then started crying.  I didn't want her to know, though, so I tried to act like I was reading a Martha Stuart magazine.  It was so sad.  All I wanted to do was hug my puppy.
They finally brought him out, I shelled out $150 bucks, and he pooped on me the whole way home.  But I didn't care.
Poor little guy.
So weird how we attach ourselves to pets.  He's kind of like our baby.  I know it will change when we do actually have a baby, but I've always been that way with Pets. I remember having to put down our childhood Yorkie, Holly, when I was in college.  It was the weekend before and we were in church- I started crying my eyes out.  A friend gave me a hug, asked me if I was okay (probably was under the impression that it was a result of some deep reflection or time in prayer), and I said, "My dog is dddddddyyying!"
NOT exactly what she was expecting, but God hears all of our prayers and pains, alright!

Anyway, praying my little guy feels better soon.
In the mood for a recipe after all that poop talk?  I am, so too bad.


This was one of my very first posts and I made it last night.  YUM.  I added layers of frozen raspberries and it was disgustingly delicious.  My husband is getting a little sick of me adding fruit to everything (and in double quantities), but I don't care.  It's soooo good!

Banana Bread (with Raspberries)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup white sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon 2 teaspoons nutmeg 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup sour cream 2 bananas, "rotten" Cinnamon and Sugar 1-2 cups frozen raspberries

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Sprinkle inside with cinnamon and sugar.
2.	In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Add in bananas, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in separate bowl. Stir together and add to batter, mixing slowly. Finally, fold in the sour cream. Spread 1/3 of batter evenly into the prepared pan.  Top with half of the raspberries.  Pour in another third.  Repeat raspberry layer.  Top with remaining batter.
3.	Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.  Sometimes it takes longer when you add fruit- you be the judge! Store in refrigerator overnight-it will make it super dense and moist!

I will have my very first guest post here tomorrow- it's sweet and hilarious and you will love it.
Happy Sunday!

 

DIY Glade Plug in Refill

HEY Paple!

I love the weekend.  Daniel and I went out on a date last night to a fancy steakhouse in town and are planning to do some home projects today/carve pumpkins.  Love that man.

Soooo, I'm pretttty strict about my casa.  My mom taught me all of this, so you can blame her!
Some of the rules of the house include:

• NO SHOES!
• Beds made every. single. day. (I think I got that from my Grandma Joann- along with 5000 other things!)
• Laundry in the laundry room only- not in the bedroom or any other room.
• No clutter- clean up after yourself!  This house rarely looks messy.
• No dishes in the sink-ever-unless the dishwasher is running and there wasn't room.
• Vacuum lines!
• And it must smell pretty.

Ha, clearly I don't have children (and clearly my husband hates me) (clearly I am joking.  He loves me lots and I like to tell myself he appreciates coming home to cleanliness).
Anyway, I don't really like to burn candles because of the flame and smoke.  Most of my candles are decoration.  Instead, I like to use knock off Scentsy-esque wax warmers (I'm sorry for all you Scentsy dealers out there, but they are just too expensive!  I'm a teacher!) that I bought at Hob Lob for $10 each OR have Glade Plug ins.  Problem is, the glad warmer inserts are so expensive.  I hate to buy new, so I hold off and hold off until the warmer turns brown from burning fumes.  Gross.  Here is a cheappppp way to refill those suckers (or any other brand!)

Buy essential oil (heard you can get tiny bottles from the dollar store- or you can use this technique to buy theirs, open them up, and pour the oil into your plug ins) or buy this oil from Hob Lob- it's in the soap section, but the label says you can use it in oil warmers, too.  You will notice the label says it was $9.99.  Print a 40% off coupon at the Hob Lob website and get it for $6 instead.

Follow these steps:

Take your warmer and eject the oil pot.

See that little ridge in the cap?  We want to pop that off.

Use a knife to get under that ridge and lift the cap off.

Fill the pot with your oil (mine is Fresh rain- I gravitate towards clean scents, go figure- but they have a few more.  Not a huge selection, though!)

Replace the cap and you are set!

I filled 4 pots and used about 1/3 of the oil.  SO for around $2, I was able to have 4 replacement oil pots.  Bazinga.

If you are into clean, green, inexpensive living (as I am obsessed with), visit my Jenni's blog, Simply Prudent.  She is currently writing through a month-long series about running her home with various different routines and ideas.  LOVE IT.  We do a lot of the same things, but I'll spare you a post and just have you read hers!

 

How to Hand Wash Clothing

First, can I say I loooooooove the powdered detergent I made?  Seriously, it's the only thing I use with my whites (all of our towels are white, so that's a lot!) and I'm already out.  Good thing it's fun {and cheap} to make! 

Sad, but true.
I have so many things that require handwashing and I never have the time to do it... so they stay at the bottom of the laundry pile for months. on. end.  (Seriously, I found a Banana Republic sweater that had been down there since last school year.  REALLY?  I am ashamed!)  So neglected, so... stinky (mostly from the clothes being heaped on top... and mostly from my husband.  What is it with men and stink?  Men are so weird.  Haha.  Love mine, though!  Oh man.  There is not a day that goes by that I am not thankful I am a woman!).  I only hand wash items that have appliques on them (beads, flowers, etc) and things I sew for myself.  I know they would be okay in the washing machine, but I just couldn't bear to see one of my babies ruined.

I finally hand washed 6 garments on Sunday and thought- wow, I might as well get a blog post out of this! SO, here is how you handwash your clothing.

1. Spot-treat stains just as you do with clothes you put in the washer/dryer.  I didn't have any stains, so I skipped this step.
2. Fill up your sink or tub (any space big enough for soaking and simulating agitation) with cold water and detergent.

1. Put clothes in the soapy water.  I had 2 loads and washed with like colors like I would typically do.  This load was for bright colors, the other was for whites.
2. Let the clothes soak.  I usually go do something else, forget, and then come back hours later.  It's never caused a problem!

1. Mimic an agitation cycle.  Spin the clothes around with your hand, squeeze the clothes gently to help the water and soap permeate the clothing, and pay special attention to collars and arm pits.

Picture 3.  Hump back.  Check it out.

1. Drain soapy water.

1. Run clothing under cold water to rinse until the water is no longer soapy or bubbly.  Make sure to get all of the detergent out!  If you leave some in your clothes, it can damage the fibers.

1. Drying time!  Gently squeeze as much water out of the item as possible, but try not to twist it-just squeeze gently. Then using a heavy absorbent dry towel, lay the clothing flat and roll it up in the towel, as such:

Step on it!  Check out the nasty-ness of this situation:  My curling iron is still out, I'm in sweatpants I've worn every evening for 3 days straight (that I stole from my sister!), and our bed has no sheets and there are clothes everywhere.  This would be my every-Sunday, cleaning everything!

1. Dry enough to hang!  If something has beads or heavy embellishments, I dry it flat.  Otherwise, I hang dry.

Done!  My dog has an infatuation with 1.  Dirty clothes (my mom told me to take dirty socks with us when we picked him up and put them in his bed so he would learn our scents and be comforted by them.  All he does now is steal our dirty clothes and lay in them.  FREAK.) and 2. Tubs.  It's rather odd.  He screamed at me the whole time I did this.

Anyway, TAKE CARE OF YOUR CLOTHES!

We are finishing the wainscoting (yessss!), so here is what our hall is up to now.  Needing paint and caulk!

My husband is pure. stud.

Got some sweet basement makeover updates comin' at ya soon!

 

Homemade Laundry Detergent {Tutorial}

Joke around our department is that this is me in commercial form:

Glitter.  So much Glitter!

This is how excited I was to make this detergent!  I love love love finding fun ways to take care of our home and try new things.  This trick is perfect!  We are making this on Thursday at school to finish our unit on laundry- my students will have to do laundry for their families (3 different loads) and they will get to take home enough detergent to do so!  I've included the label that will go on my students' containers.  Feel free to print it for yourself!

Ingredients:

1 Bar Fels Naptha Laundry Soap

1 Cup Borax

1 Cup Super Washing Soda (aka Soda Ash)

1/4 cup Baking Soda

I was able to find these ingredients super easy at our local grocery store.  I'm sure Walmart would carry them, too!

• First, grate the bar of soap with a cheese grater.  I used this handy dandy gadget, but it actually wasn't that handy!  A cheese grater would work best.  I would suggest wearing gloves, too.  It's a little harsh to touch that much concentration of soap.
  

  

   
• Once you have the whole bar grated, transfer to a food processor.  Grind into a very fine powder.
  

  
• Pour soap "dust" into a bowl.  Add Borax, baking soda, and washing soda. 
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  
• Mix together!
  

  

  
  
  Keep in air-tight container!  2 tablespoons is enough for a normal load.  As with all powder detergents, dissolve in the wash water first before adding clothing.  Little pockets of powder in the folds of your clothing can cause the detergent to eat your clothing.  Dissolve first!  I tend to overload my washing machine, so I put in an extra tablespoon.  It has a nice smell in dry form and when the clothes are wet, but the scent will disappear in the dryer.  I love it!  I've heard this also works in HE washers.  Basically, if you can use a powder, this recipe should be okay.  I would read your owners manual.
  
  

  

  I repurposed an applesauce jar that my Grandma canned this summer!

   Printable Label:

  

  
  

I heard this recipe might be too harsh for baby items, but I also know people who do use it {on everything} and love it. I've also heard Borax might not be the best for bright bright colors, but the box says it's a perfect and natural alternative to colorsafe beach... which should mean it'll be okay, Anyway, I've used it on a load of whites and on some jeans/workout shorts. Everything turned out fine!

Cost:

Fels Naptha Soap:  $.99

Borax:  $3.79

Baking Soda:  $2.69 (although I had this already)

Washing Soda:  $3.19

Total:   $10.66

Keep in mind the only thing I used in its entirety is the bar of soap.  I barely made a dent in the other 3 ingredients.  This is way cheaper in the long run than buying detergent.

If you are into "Green" cleaning solutions, The Naturally Clean Home by Karyn Siegel-Maier is an awesome book with tons of recipes:

I didn't get this detergent recipe from it, but it had it in there.  I'm planning on making the dishwasher detergent this week, too!  This book is big on essential oils that you can add for happy smelling.  Also, apparently vinegar is a fabric softener.  Who knew?  It is non-toxic, removes soap residue and prevents static cling in the dryer.  However, vinegar can make dyes in come fabrics run, as with rayon.  Just say no! =)  I will stick to my Aldi softener, thank you!

Please read my update on this detergent after using it for several months!

Caulking Tutorial

I love moulding.

Seriously, obsessed.

It does so much for a room-adds elegance and depth, makes me feel rich (I don't think that's important in life, but I like the feeling moulding gives me, okay?!)

We are in the process of putting up moulding and wainscoting in our hallways and entry ways and it is going great!  This afternoon, we caulked the top of the chair rail so that I can touch up the paint with one more coat tomorrow.
Caulking is a funny thing.  It makes me nervous because there really is no getting it off once it's applied, unless you are wanting to take it off (which is a whole other process).  Which means, if you "spread" it too high on the wall, you. are. donefor.  At the same time, once it's up, I can't imagine living without it.
Here is what it should not look like:

I don't know whose house this is, but it shouldn't look like this.  Sorry!  We made this mistake in one of our bedrooms and I was so unhappy with it, I wanted to be sick.  I understand this is a bathroom, but it's not hard to get it to look like this in a wall in your living room.  We bought one of these:

And I was very unhappy with it.  It started leaving little blue streaks on the paint on our wall and didn't leave a smooth line whatsoever.  I did better using my pointer finger, which was still awful.

Caulking should look like this:

Don't judge the paint job.  I still have more coats to do!

Want to know how I got it that way?  You've come to the right place!

This tutorial is dedicated to my Dad, who taught me to go perfect or go home.  He taught me not to settle for it doing anything "half-a**ed" (sorry!), but to keep working at something until it is perfect, no matter how long it takes.  This tutorial is a result of that mindset!  Once we finish the entire project, I will post a long tutorial.  Consider this an installment!

Hey girl!

• First, hang your trim.  I will post in a week or so how we did that- or you can figure it out on your own.

• Next, use painter's tape to tape off a very thin line above the trim.  Make sure you have a pretty solid adhesion to the wall, or the caulking might seep (it might not because it's so thick, but I don't take that chance!).

•  Using a caulking gun, squeeze a long line of caulk into the top of the trim, in between the tape and trim.

I am not that hairy!  My hubby helped me.. or I helped him?  Joint effort.  Love him!

• Next, use your pointer finger (no fancy tools needed!) and smooth it out.  Don't worry about getting it on the tape.  You may want to wipe off any access that happens to get onto the trim.

• Pull the tape away from the wall slowly and at a 90 degree angle (or more!).

 and again:

Done!  Let it dry and you are ready to paint =)

So easy.  Whoever made this technique up is a genius.

Never again will I buy a silly caulking "tool"!  =)


 

Sink or Swim? Sink!

I. Love. My. Kitchen.

What do I like about it?  There is lots of room to socialize, lots of storage space, is totally separate from the eating area, and is my favorite color scheme:  Neutrals!

Don't mind the window treatment- it was left here when we bought and house and I haven't replaced it yet.  Shocker, I know.  Also, our oven handle is broken.  We're getting that fixed asap.

I put these pot holders up (which I made with my students last semester for about $1 each- there is 4) when we first moved in on these CUTE cast iron tea pot holders, which I found on clearance at Hob Lob for $1.75 each.

The sink, however, is the one thing I do not love.  It is a white porcelain enamel sink and scratches/stains at the drop of a hat.  Being the clean freak that I typically am, it drives me nuts.

SOOOO I started a sink fund.  In a wine glass.  By the sink.
I "encouraged" Daniel to contribute to it when I was being "good".
Let's just say he made no contributions.  (Kidding- he did =D)

All excess funds (i.e. my birthday money, gift cards, house warming gift, and health insurance "rewards" for being healthy) were collected and taken to Home Depot to buy......

Granite Composite Sink!

I absolutely love it!  Stain and scratch free.  The bowls are also deeper and bigger.  Thank you to our friend Paul for working on his Saturday night to put it in for us.  Oh, how I love it!  I was going to take some process pictures, but Paul's wife, Ellie, and I sewed a precious little dress for their daughter and we were busy busy busy.  Sorry!  (I'll make another and put it in a tutorial=D)

Here is what our kitchen looks like now:

 Looooooooooof it!
Who knew a sink could make a girl so happy?

On another note, my coffee table redo is primed and I'm off to paint it.  Reveal will be posted this week!