How to Remove Yellow Armpit Stains

Let me start off by saying that I am rather embarrassed to show you this photo.
This is one of my all-time favorite shirts. It is 100% bamboo cotton and feels so amazing. It is light weight and breathable and works great for layering. One problem:

Yep, that's right. The dreaded yellow pit stain. I have an excessive sweat problem (no, really, I sweat ALL the time, even when I'm cold...) and, sadly, I have a LOT of white shirts that have suffered this fate. Most of them have been tossed in the trash or cut up for rags or projects. Some, (like my awesome flame-sleeve shirt from High School) were rather painful to part with. Others, like this amazingly comfy shirt, I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of. I have spent many times wearing shirts like this and trying to keep my arms at my sides, or wearing extra layers to hide the dreaded pit stain. This particular shirt has looked just like this for more than 4 years. So sad! :(

I came across a few things on Pinterest to try to get rid of deodorant stains (as that is what the yellow stain actually is), but they all did little to nothing. I tried straight bleach. I tried White-Brite. I tried Rit dye (yes, they sell white dye). I tried peroxide and baking soda. NOTHING worked.

Then I found a few blogs that suggested adding dish soap to the peroxide/soda mixture. I tried it. Didn't work. So lame! So my shirts sat in my closet, longing to be worn, along with a grease-stained dress shirt from Riker's side of the closet.

Now here's the kicker: I always use cheap dish soap. It cleans, I don't care. Lately, I have been buying Ajax just because. It is relatively cheaper, but I figured it would work better than the super cheap brand. Riker always gives me a hard time because it doesn't SAY that it fights grease on the bottle (this coming from the man who INSISTS on Bounty paper towel, Huggies diapers, and top quality toilet paper. And to be honest, don't tell him I said this, he has been right so far), so how well can it actually clean?

I found another Pinterest tip for another project that REQUIRED Dawn dish soap and no other brand. I thought that was stupid, but I picked some up anyway as Geordi had dumped 3/4 of my dish soap on the kitchen table and I needed more soap.

With my ultra-concentrated de-greasing Dawn in hand, I figured I would start experimenting with things to see if it was really all it was cracked up to be. I think I have been converted! I used 1/3 of the soap I normally use for dishes. That right there convinced me. Then, I figured, what the heck, I will give this peroxide/baking soda/dish soap thing a try again.

...Dude.

Wait, let me show you the original again, for reference.

This poor shirt has suffered needlessly for FOUR YEARS!! I am going to go crazy on my white shirts tomorrow! Plus, it even removed the grease stain that has been washed and dried multiple times and then sat in the back of my closet for over a year.

So, I know you want to try this too now. I guess I can share my secret with you :)

I mixed 2 T baking soda, 3 T hydrogen peroxide, and 1 tsp DAWN dish soap in a small bowl. I spooned it over the stain, scrubbed it like crazy with a scrub brush for about 2 minutes or so (didn't damage my soft shirt at all) and let it sit for about an hour. The blue shirt sat for 1 1/2 hours since I washed it in a separate load, but it didn't affect it at all. Then I laundered it normally.

As a side note: this mixture wound up being more than I needed for both shirts, so I would probably halve that for 1 or 2 items. I think tomorrow I will wind up using it all, if not more, but I have 5 or 6 shirts to treat.

Have fun rescuing your favorite white shirts!!

Egg Salad Sandwiches

Egg Salad Sandwiches
Adapted from allrecipes.com 
Serves 6

12 eggs, boiled, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons barbeque sauce
1 tablespoon mustard
1 dash chipotle pepper
12 slices whole wheat bread
6 oz cheddar cheese
6 pears, sliced

Peel and chop eggs. Mix mayo, barbecue sauce, mustard and chipotle powder in separate bowl. Add eggs and stir to combine. Serve on bread with cheese slices and pears.

Tomato Basil Quiche

I made this recipe for dinner tonight and I can't get enough of it (honestly, that happens every time I make it). It is SO good! It is adapted from a recipe found here.

Tomato Basil Quiche with Whole Wheat Crust
Serves 6

1.5 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup melted butter
1.5 cups milk
5 eggs, beaten
large handful fresh basil, chiffonade (fancy word for chopped in strips)
15 grape tomatoes (I greatly prefer this recipe with sun dried tomatoes, but I don't always have them on hand)
4 oz log chevre, crumbled
salt and pepper to taste
2 bunches asparagus


In a 9-inch pie pan, combine butter and flour and mix with a fork. After mixing well, use your hand to form a ball in the pan and then press into pan. Bring it up on the sides and pinch the top (with your finger or a fork). Evenly spread the cheese, tomatoes, and bail over the crust. Then mix eggs and milk and pour gently over filling. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until filling is set. Serve with steamed asparagus spears.

How to Remove Spray Paint From a Mirror

I got a great deal on a dresser/mirror set for Tasha several months ago (by great deal, I mean the neighbors were getting rid of it and let us take it for free) and figured the easiest way to update it and hide the stains/scratches/etc was to spray paint it (I tried gel stain first and it was a depressingly utter disaster). I know, I should have taken before and after pictures and I fully intended to take a before picture and kept forgetting as I started, head-first into each project (it's a curse, really).

Anyway, I got the dresser and nightstand all done and got lazy with the mirror. I didn't bother taping it at all. I just laid some paper over the mirror itself and figured that would do the trick....

Nope.

Here's what happened:

 The majority of the mirror looks like that (although the edges look even worse from the epic gel stain failure).


I tried to scrape the paint off with a razor blade, and, although it did the work on the gel stain (and took forever), the amount of spray paint and the size of the mirror made the razor essentially useless.

Luckily, Almighty Google came to my rescue and led me to Young & Crafty, where a similar case of laziness (though not as severe as mine) had led to a mishap as well. She recommended nail polish remover. I was skeptical, as was she, but after a LOT of scrubbing and a couple of ventilation breaks, the mirror looks brand new! Hooray!

And here is the finished product hanging up in Tasha's room. She loves it and I am so glad to have it finally done and put up (it sat in the back yard for nearly 2 months! eek!)

Organize My Life! (or at least all my daughter's hair accessories)

This one is my favorite so far

Anyone that is friends with me on Facebook has seen all the cute hairstyles I have done on Tasha's hair over the last year or so. What they haven't seen is the massive amounts of hair accessories that have taken over my bathroom (mine included!). All that girly-ness has been grating on Riker, although he has kept it to himself for the most part. Luckily, he doesn't spend that much time in the bathroom, so the 3 cupboards, a drawer and a medicine cabinet filled with all of my magic tools, gels and sprays doesn't have THAT much time to irritate him... until it adds up...

So...

I decided that I was going to buy Tasha an accessory organizer. They have been all over Pinterest, but I was too lazy to make some cute, fabric/batting/ribbon board. I found one at Walmart the other day, but wasn't really impressed by it. Plus it cost $10! Seriously, I know I could make one for less than that (but how to do it and still be lazy? lol).

Here's my inspiration:

Here's what I came up with:

It wasn't nearly large enough to hold ALL of our accessories, but then again, I still haven't figured out the best way to include all of the little clipies and rubber bands we usually use. Either way, this gets most of the bulk out of my bathroom.

I only spent $3 on this to buy the white knobs. The rest I did using supplies I already had laying around. Want to see?

Here we go!

I started with a shelf from an old broken bookcase (yes I have a pile of shelves in my garage) which I had spray painted to match Tasha's dresser
a 2 pack of cabinet knobs
two coordinating ribbons at least 3/4" wide.
sticky velcro
scissors
hot glue gun
sharpie

For fun, I drew a bunch of scrolls on the board with a sharpie. I think they turned out really great, but you can't really see them once you put all the ribbon on.

You attach 3 or 4 strips of ribbon to one half of the board, wrapping the ends over the edges and gluing them in back ONLY. Attach the knobs to the opposite side of the board. I added an additional strip of ribbon to the knob half, but in loops for the headbands. Because Tasha has so many elastic headbands, I cut the top ribbon and attached sticky velcro to both sides.

There you have it. Not the most detailed tutorial, but I didn't take a lot of pictures in the FIFTEEN minutes that it took me to make this. Hopefully it gets the job done!