A Little Paint Makeover

I have been busy lately preparing to sell my house and
helping plan a 2nd birthday party, so I haven't had much free time address the growing number of great ideas I have pinned. But I did manage find some time on a sunny afternoon to for a quick soap-pump update.

I loved my foaming soap pump that I had purchased a year ago. Partly because I find the foam fun, and partly because I am cheap and the foam soap pump uses less soap. But it was just not pretty enough to have out on my counter all of the time. So after looking through some of my pins I found the perfect solution.

The inspiration for this quick makeover was a pin that I have seen multiple times and is what I would call a "classic pin" - you know, one of those pins it seem that everyone has pinned and has been around since the start of Pinterest.



This is a very simple and quick process. Basically you:

1. Choose the pump you like and make sure it is empty and clean.
2. Spray paint it with paint for plastic.
3. Add soap and put back together.


The only problem.....I am the WORST spray-painter EVER! No mater what I do I seem to get paint drips and streaking. I try to follow all the painting tips, using a light misting spray, light coats, constantly moving while spraying, but it never seems to work for me. I think I'm too impatient and my light coats are not as light as I should be. So after my first few coats I used high grit sandpaper to even thing out a bit. Another light coat and things were looking better.

For someone with a better spray-painting technique this is a quick makeover. For me it took a little longer but was still easy. It doesn't look like a high-end soap pump,  but it does look 100% better then when I started, and I think it looks good enough to keep it in my bathroom a little longer.




Before                                                                      After

Since I was already in my painting grove - OK it was not much of a grove but my hands were already covered in spray-paint and I did have cardboard laid out on the grass - I decided to update a few other things with a little red spray-paint.

The Miracle Cleaning Power of Water

I have been getting my house ready to sell and my to-do list  seems to be getting longer and longer every day. I am amazed how many things have been on my list since they day we moved in (almost 4 years ago). One of these (never-seem-to-get-to) items is to address this:

And no, the grout is not supposed to be dark grey. Gross right?

I find it is one of those tasks that gets forgotten - how many people pay that much attention to the kitchen floors anyway? OK, maybe a lot of people. But it seemed like a big and not very fun task so I kept on putting it off - for 4 years. Now that I am about to invite a bunch of strangers into my house to criticise it I finally bit the bullet and decided to tackle this gross grout one night.

I remembered a pin from a friend that made it seem like there was a quick and easy solution. I'm sure you have seen similar pins all over Pinterest.




After a week of cleaning with various cleaners around the house all week I was also looking forward to a less harsh cleaning solution, and one that promised to be quick and easy.

I will admit I was a little hopeful (With so many version of the same thing being re-pinned all of the time it had to work, right?) yet skeptical. In principle I do not like vinegar and backing soda miracle "cleaning solutions." On occasion I do clean with vinegar and baking soda separately, but I don't understand why you would mix them together. If you have ever taken a high school chemistry class you know that when you mix the two you will end up cleaning with water. The one time I do mix the two is for maintenance drain cleaning, but it is for the bubbling action not the "miracle cleaner" that results from mixing the two (though water itself is a great cleaner). When it came to cleaning grout I thought this bubbling action may be helpful again.

So I went through my kitchen cupboards and gathered my supplies.

Water, Vinegar & Baking Soda

I adapted the directions a bit to hopefully make it work a little better for me.

1. I made a paste of water and baking soda and using a small brush and worked the paste into the grout and gave it a light scrub.
    
2. I then sprayed the baking soda covered grout with vinegar and watched it bubble away for about 10 mins.
3. I  gave it another light scrub then sprayed with water and wiped the tiles down.

This is what it ended up looking like.



It is a little cleaner, but I'm thinking I would have had the same results with just spraying with water and scrubbing. It definitely did not end up looking like the pin results.

In the end I was not really out much (except my time) as I already had everything on hand. There are other version of similar recipes out there that I considered trying. But since I already wasted a night on this in the end I used a commercial grout cleaner. Maybe I will give the others a try in my next house.

Keeping it fresh

So I have been a little bad with updating with new posts. OK, I have been awful about it. Hopefully I will have some time this week to finish up some late posts and get them on here.

Is back-posting a no-no in the bloggersphere? Oh well, who will know.. :)

In the meantime there is one pin I found working today in the back of my fridge. As I noted before my fridge is the place where vegetables go to die. I have to admit that celery is one of the most common victim. I usually end up buying it for a recipe (or oh a whim), use 10% then the rest wilts and decomposes into a slimy mess in the back corners of the fridge.

Now I can't find the original pin (likely part of one of those list of tips) but it is a quick and easy to explain so here it goes.

1. Trim the bottom of the celery
2. Place in a tall cup with a little bit of water

So far the typical storage advice. I think what makes it work is the next step...

3. Place a plastic bag over the celery
4. Place in fridge

This worked great for me. My celery was in the fridge for over a month (probably more like 6 weeks) and I took it out today and had a piece. It was fresh tasting and crisp (probably better than the day I bought it).

 I would recommend this method for longer time storage.