The easiest and cheapest washer cleaner ever.

First off, for anyone that has read my blog before and knows me, sorry for the long absence! I haven't posted since NOVEMBER! My Etsy shop and Facebook pages, along with 2 crazy little girls, have kept me pretty busy!

On to the easiest and cheapest washer cleaner post you're here for...

A while back I started seeing those new commercials for the washer cleaner pouches by the major brand names. I thought, "Ahh, crap, I probably need one of those." Then I saw the price and realized I'm way too cheap for it and definitely too cheap to do it so many times as they suggest.

So then I started Googling for methods that were easy and cheap. I found one! I tried the method I found on THIS blog. I was amazed at how well it worked. I pinned it on my Pinterest page and it has been re-pinned like crazy. I thought I would link it on my poor, neglected blog, making sure to credit where I saw it first, and show you picture proof of how well it works.

So the easy and cheap method I use to clean my front loading washing machine requires these two ingredients:

4 cups of chlorine bleach
4 cups of white vinegar

The blog I followed used "quart" as the measurement. I have a hard time remembering measurement conversion. 4 cups = 1 quart, trust me, I checked. I thought it would save a few people the trouble of double checking that fact also.

So I'm going to show you pictures of my gross washing machine. Really. Don't read this and think, "It can't be as bad as mine..." I wash cloth diapers in here. Cloth diapers with poop on them. Lots of it sometimes if I'm lazy about scraping it off in the bathroom. I also have a gross and furry dog. And 2 kids (girls!) that like to play in dirt outside. So now I will show you some pictures of what my washer and door seal area looks like.

 See? Gross right?

Now I do the bleach part first, following the super easy instructions. Pour 4 cups of bleach into your detergent area so it goes right into the tub. I put mine in the area where powdered detergent would go so I could pour it all. I took out the "liquid" tray that is normally here and just poured it in the "main wash" area.

I ran my washer on the Sanitary cycle. It runs the wash at extra hot and the rinse is cold. The cycle is about an hour and half.

Then I use the 4 cups of vinegar the same way. Pour 4 cups of vinegar into your detergent area so it goes right into the tub. I ran my washer on the Sanitary (extra hot/cold) cycle again for about an hour and half.

The results - AMAZING!

I did not wipe down any part of the inside of my washer. I did not touch any of the grossness in that door seal. My husband didn't believe me. He thought I was trying to make my method look better than it actually was. I did nothing but these two cycles with maybe about $1 worth of cleaners and a few hours of time running the washer. It might smell like bleach for a bit but it will not damage your clothes since we ran that vinegar cycle. (BUT, that said, I usually do a batch of towels first!!)

If you have a top loader you would just run the hottest, longest wash you have, once filled with water add your bleach. Once that empties and the washer is still wet, dump in the white vinegar, then run the hottest, longest cycle again.

Happy washer cleaning!! Let me know if you try this and like it! Feel free to pin away this post too!

Birthday Party Fun

This weekend we celebrated a 2nd birthday! Alligator's birthday isn't until Monday. At this point 2 years ago I was still in the labor process on day 2 of a 3 day induction. We had tons of friends and family over on Saturday and a good time was had by all!

Here is the door "wreath" I made. I made it in the shape of a 2 because that was, of course, more fun!

Cupcake toppers made by a great friend! Purple funfetti cupcakes with funfetti frosting. (There was a birthday banner to match but it got lost from one birthday party last weekend to this birthday party this weekend.)

Yummy sugar cookies I made in the shape of flowers and number 2s. (Harder to ice these shapes really quick than I thought, good thing they tasted great!)

The cake done by Publix. All I did was give them the plates and tell them to "make it pretty and like these."

The light over the dining room table decorated with some pretty ornaments.

The yummy buffet. Cupcake stands I made out of a dollar store pizza pan, some candle holders, and gorilla glue. Normally I use these for our Halloween party decorations, painted black and covered in candle wax.

Alligator was VERY excited about her pom poms she got as a gift from my cousin. My friend over at Polka Dot Lolli Pop lives nearby and made this shirt for her Friday night. I actually dropped it off to her at 11pm and she brought it to me the next morning. She's awesome. =) I made the skirt to match (slightly big for room to grow).

Very exciting pom poms.

The hallway showing the magnet board I made. I used a piece of metal (FREE!) and put in a heavy duty frame with backing. Used a monster type of hanging hook to make sure it was sturdy. The kids love it!

A bounce house borrowed from a friend and neighbor provided great entertainment in the back yard!

The only goo picture I have of the two of us. She was very happy to be singing Happy Birthday. She says "Happy Bap" for Happy Birthday. She really enjoyed it.

She also really enjoyed the cake. She took her first bite by the handful. Yummy.

She did end up using a fork for a couple bites.

Little Mallinator had a great time too. She will be 8 months on the 1st and she did so great during the party. She took 2 naps and was hugged and loved by many. She is crawling all around now and really enjoyed playing with some of Alligator's new toys.

Thank you to all our friends and family for coming to celebrate with us! Hope to post more frequently now that the Halloween and Birthday stuff is over with. My Etsy shop and Facebook page were super busy for Halloween with orders.Thanks for reading!

Wordless Wednesday - a few pictures to catch up

PS - Check out this great Giveaway: The Mommy Diaries and this great Raffle for a great cause: Karing for Keegan

Wordless Wednesday - 2nd day of preschool!

(Bothered that I made her stop so I could take her picture.)

5 1/2 months already?!

It is crazy to think that the Malligator is 5 1/2 months and Alligator is almost 2. TWO. 2 years old. Amazing! (Oh also notice how original I am in hiding M's name? I know some of my readers know my kids' names, but some don't, and I'd like to keep some things a bit private.)

So we are doing pretty well around here! Everyone is sleeping better at night. Our days and nights are way more predictable. I kind of feel like I have the hang of things around here. It was right around this time with Alligator I felt this way too.

A lot of people have asked us about solids for the Malligator because she's 5 1/2 months and a lot of people start at 4 months. We are not those people. ;) We are waiting. It is much easier to give her a bottle or a boob right now, why mess with that!? With Alligator we waited until nearly 8 months and it did not harm her one bit. She eats almost anything. She loves some vegetables. She loves fruit. And she will tear up some BBQ meats. Her favorite veggie: lima beans. For real. She will pick them all out of the mixed veggies first when we have them with dinner. She is such a silly girl sometimes too.

Here are some pictures I have to share, finally.

 Here she is! So excited to be 5 months old!

Not quite sitting up on her own yet, but very very close.

I have a picture of myself in a grocery bag when I was about Alligator's age. My dad was holding m e and I had a similar smile going on. Well this is MY grocery bag and here is Alligator in it. I made this bag and I suppose I made it pretty well. I was swinging her around in this thing for a good 15 minutes. She weighs about 29 pounds! 

 We were testing out my new camera lens with my niece and Alligator outside. Yes she is playing with a thing of deodorant.... I am still figuring out the lens and how to get a good bokeh going on. Next I need to figure out how to do some good Photoshop tweaking. Not bad though? I have a good subject. ;)

Malligator sticking out her tongue. She loves doing this right before I hit the camera button instead of smiling.

Here are some very cute bibs a friend of mine sent me. You can get your own custom bibs here: http://stores.ebay.com/Deals-by-Kathy

I won a giveaway of these custom name crayons. I blurred out the names but you get the point. ;) You can find your own custom set here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MadebyMAXX 

I also was looking through my pictures on my computer and found THIS blog entry from last year around this date. Amazing what a year does. Here are the pictures from that post. This kid cracks me up!

I have a new Facebook page for my Alligator Lane store too. If you haven't checked it out go here:
http://www.facebook.com/alligatorlane

I'm doing a Giveaway through another page on Facebook, so if you are interested in that check out Mommies Who Love Freebies and see the September Albums. To enter you have to like the sponsor (or person doing the giveaway) and then like the picture of the prize you want to win. I'm giving away a tie onesie in Album 1.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear from or see who is reading, so leave a comment and say HI. I am going to try to update more often and tie the blog more into the shop on Facebook and Etsy. Also might start doing some giveaways of my own and for some friends. So thanks for checking us out and come back again!! =)

Wordless Wednesday - Babies in a Basket!

Babies in a basket!

 

Babies + laundry baskets = awesome. =)

 

4 months already! 

I've been a bad blogger!

I've been a bad blogger! I have 2 little munchkins keeping me busy. Both of them won't stop growing! A keeps working on teeth and they HURT. They make most nights pretty painful around here. M keeps just growing and eating....what babies do I guess. I just started up some crafting again so my Etsy and Facebook hops are going and keeping me busy again too. Some day we will have clean laundry and floors again...right?

So here are some pictures to make up for my non-blogging.

 Red popsicles are very messy...and must be eaten outdoors!

4th of July was uneventful...we got some good pictures but only after the whole family and everyone we know got a stomach bug.

Little M is 4 months old on Monday...so this 3 month picture is old!!

Big A loves her little sister...but is sometimes rough so little M gets back by trying to eat her sometimes:

Little M is a smiley girl now...

And loves to roll over...

I've been working on some crafts again...I added a lot of old pictures and new pictures to my stores:

Etsy and Facebook

Here are a few things I've done (just a few, really, I've been busy!)

The diaper clutch.

And some other random things...

I'm working on making and adding some more simple waterproof folding diaper changing pads, simple ribbon burp cloths, baby/toddler ties and belts, and more things I'm forgetting. SO, go check out my Alligator Lane Facebook Page and "LIKE" it. =)

Hope you liked my update! Thanks for reading!!