This is how Oliver spends his days… standing or trying to walk. Oh dear.
Rainbows
I’ve been working on this during every spare moment since my Scrap or Save post…
Unfortunately, what with Oliver’s ridiculous sleep habits of late and an abundance of work, spare moments have been few and far between. I’ve been snatching time which would otherwise be wasted: journeys in the car (when I’m a passenger!) and as 10 minutes downtime before I sleep at night (to ‘switch off’ after having spent all evening at the screen).
Still, I’m really quite pleased with it. It was a bit of an on-a-whim project; & I’ve only made a few mistakes which is nice :) It’s going to be for my bed, which is a super king, so quite a way to go before it’s finished…
Cleaning Scraggy Old Carpets
Is scraggy a word? Firefox isn’t flashing me the wiggly red line of doom…
When we moved into this house (the ‘omg mega debt’ house) there were carpets throughout. We made the decision to rip out the carpet in the front room and replace it with cheap vinyl; we did this for two reasons: 1) because the previous owners had a dog and the carpet was thick with dog fluff and 2) because with small children, the idea of scrubbing bodily fluids out of the carpet on a regular basis left me feeling a little nauseous.
Unfortunately we couldn’t afford to replace the carpets house-wide (see above: omg mega debt) so settled for cleaning those upstairs. Except that even borrowing Karl’s mum’s mega expensive Vax didn’t do much for the ancient, crusty carpet in Izzy’s room:
Mega stainage
Ominous stain of unidentified origin
(Clearly I have no shame, sharing these with you…)
So anyway, when I was asked if I wanted some Vanish spray for carpets & upholstery to review I figured I could give it a shot. Worst case scenario I have to do some cleaning (shudder) but best case I get rid of the dodgy stains for free (and free is my favourite price).
Back to the stains… I tried to use the stain removal advice that they’ve got on site (trying to do this properly, right?) but because I am not entirely sure of the origins of the stains I wasn’t sure what to pick (and for the record, I think they’re missing a trick not listing wee / poo / vomit on the guide as that’s what I spend most of my time cleaning up, I swear. ETA: they do! Under ‘body fluids’. Nice.) Enough brackets, where am I? Oh yes, stains.
So I don the rubber gloves and equip myself with the big squirty bottle & at this point I’m feeling all Kim and Aggie but I can’t find any feather boas to stick to my gloves :(
I applied the spray, waited about 1 minute (you’re supposed to wait 5 but I don’t have all day) and gave it a quick scrub:
No more carpet grot, no more ominous stain. Of course now the only problem is that the rest of the carpet is shown up by the clean patch. I’ll just have to make Karl finish it off, and then he can use the coffee stains guide to tackle the old sofa…
Scrap or Save
I have been a little frazzled recently, and in an attempt to get some ‘down time’ away from the screen was planning on doing a bit of crochet again. I say “a bit”, because as it stands I have never actually completed a project. In the cot next to my bed (which is used to store clothes, lest you think I’ve given up co-sleeping) is a project I started for the birth of my nephew. My nephew turned 7 this year.
Anyway, I was going to take my hooks and wool on holiday with me at the weekend but unfortunately couldn’t find them before we were due to leave (note to self: do not ever again try to get all packing done in the space of 2 hours right before you leave whilst juggling a baby and a toddler).
On a hunch, I checked the wardrobe earlier and lo and behold, two boxes of yarn (acrylic) and my hooks, as well as various projects I’ve started from over the years. I am thinking about actually finishing a couple of these, but don’t know which to choose. So I’m handing over the decision to you guys… scrap or save? Pick your favourite two, I will endeavour to finish them at some point in the next millenium and might even photograph my progress.
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My name is Jem, & I once told the world I'd never become a "mommy blogger" ... then I had a baby. Now I talk about boobs and poo and other inane mummy stuff. 
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