Putting a Wooden Spoon Over a Pot

I pinned this:



If you place a wooden spoon over a boiling pot, it will prevent it from boiling over.

Dinner time in our household is also known as the witching hour. Typically something gets burnt, boils over, spills, etc. I thought that I would try this out to see if it would help with one of the three things mentioned above. Well, it doesn't really work. Yes, it will prevent a massive boil over, however, your pot can and will still splash some out here and there, which will still create a mess. Oh well, back to the drawing board!

I will say, the blog (linked above) contains a lot of awesome ideas. I have yet to try them but hope to someday soon. Whichever ones I try, I will let you know!

Good luck and happy pinning!

Cleaning Microfiber Furniture

We have a microfiber sofa in our basement and it is a MESS (I will not even take a picture of it for this post because it is just that gross and I refuse to replace it until the kids are older because we are only going to keep on getting it messy)! There are little water spots due to small leaks from juice boxes, greasy spots from food being set down, etc. The sad part is that we paid extra for some sort of stain protection (this was way before we had kids) for the couch and well, we got ripped off.

Our couch has two regular cushions and one long chaise-like side. To clean the cushions, I typically just take the cushion covers off and throw them in the washer. The only problem is that the chaise's cover is impossible to take off and of course, which section do you think tends to look the worst? The arms also get water spots on them from time to time and they are tough to get off.

When I saw this pin, I thought, I HAVE to try this! Here is the pin and description:

How to clean microfiber furniture (please click on the picture to go to the blog).

So I followed the instructions and was hoping for a miracle! First, you really need a well ventilated area because the alcohol is very pungent. I scrubbed and scrubbed at my toughest water spots. While I will say that surface dirt comes off using this method, I did not have any luck with regard to my water spots. My husband and I rented a steam cleaner last year to clean our carpets and he used the attachments on the chaise and arm rests and so far, that has been the only thing to rid our couch of the unsightly water spots. But of course, how often do you rent one of those machines?

Would I try to clean my couches with alcohol again? For me, no. I think putting the cushion covers in the washing machine is still the best option for me. I think if you own a couch where the covers do not come off, this is a great way to get rid of a lot of surface dirt and filth. I don't think it works if you want to rid your couch of water spots.

Good luck and happy pinning!

Autographed Disney Picture

Here is a description of what I "pinned":



If you write a letter to a character at Disney (Walt Disney World Communications PO Box 10040 Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040), they will send you an autographed photo back.

.................

I had both kids write a letter to their favorite character. My son wrote to Mickey and my daughter wrote to Belle. I read on the website (linked above by clicking the Cinderella picture) that the pictures would take about a month to receive.

Well about a month later, this is what we received in the mail (please excuse the flash on the princess card, I am not the world's greatest photographer):

At first, I thought, what the heck is this? I guess based on the autographed pictures I saw online I figured that they would each receive an 8 x 10 autographed picture (not postcard) of each character (pictured individually). So when I saw the postcard, I was a little bummed. My skepticism quickly dissipated after I showed both kids their postcards. They were SO excited! My 3 1/2 year old son was so happy that Mickey sent him a postcard and my daughter, who is 21 months old, kept looking at her card saying "princess".

So would I recommend it? For the cost of a postage stamp, absolutely. I am not sure how many postcards exist (i.e. is there a postcard of the Toy Story cast?), but if your kids love Disney, this is a fun, virtually free, thing to do.

Good luck and happy pinning!