creative little daisy

Fall cleaning with SC Johnson {giveaway}

It happens every spring and every fall,

the urge to give the house a good top to bottom scrubbing.

In the spring I want to throw open the windows and let the fresh air in.

In the fall I want to fluff up the cozy blankets and light candles that smell of cinnamon.

Just in time for my fall cleaning, SC Johnson sent me a pretty blue box of goodies.

On Saturday, I elicited the help of my sister Erica and we got down to business. Dirty business.

I don't know how I ever kept a clean house with two children and a full time job.

I'm home all day with a three year old,  and can't manage to keep up with the laundry,

let alone dust or mop the floors.

I took full advantage of having a helper and as an added bonus,

I was able to get some help with the review.

Win, win I tell you.

My bathrooms are clean and smell wonderful and I had to check my sister's

pockets before she left to make sure she didn't steal my

Pledge Multi Surface Everyday Cleaner.

She sounded like an infomercial as she went about spraying and wiping every surface in my house.

It removed a rust ring on my bathroom counter with ease,

marker stains on my white coffee table,

and made my stainless steel counter top shine.

And it smells great too!

I have used and loved the fabric sweeper for pet hair, even before receiving one for review.

It is easy to use and does what it says. 

What more can you ask for?

So, the bottom line, would I actually purchase any of these products now that I've tried them?

Yes.

My favorites were the pet hair sweeper, the multi purpose spray

and the Scrubbing Bubbles toilet cleaning gel.

We have well water and have problems with mineral rings in the toilet.

The toilet cleaning gel keeps those ugly rings away between weekly cleanings

and I like the clean fresh scent.

SC Johnson has a great site, Right @ Home.

In addition to tips on cleaning, you find decorating ideas, recipes and coupons.

Also, be sure to check out the digital booklet, Ideas for a Fabulous Fall.

Want to win you own cleaning kit, valued at $25.00?

Sure you do!

I'm making it simple to win.

Just be a follower of Creative Little Daisy and leave me a comment

giving me your one best cleaning tip.

For two more chances,  tweet about it and/or  tell your friends on facebook,

then leave comment telling me you shared.

That makes three chances to win per person.

This giveaway is open to residents of the contiguous US and ends Monday

November 7 at Midnight EST.

Good Luck!

 

 SC Johnson provided me with products to review, the opinions are my own.

 

Boot socks- on the cheap

I've never made any secret of the fact that I'm cheap thrifty.

I could never pay ten to twenty dollars for a pair of socks.

One pair, not a pack. 

Not gonna do it.

But they are cute. And trendy. And I like to look cute sometimes.

Not twenty dollar socks cute.

So, I went to the thrift store and picked up a couple of sweaters.

Less than two bucks a piece.

And I cut off the sleeves.

Then I serged around the raw edge of one.

And it got all stretched out and ugly. 

So I dug through my enormous fabric stash,

and found some ribbed knit.

I measured around my ankle with pants on

and cut a strip of the knit roughly that size~

about 9 inches by 4 inches wide.

Fold in half, the long way, wrong side together

Then fold in half, end to end and straight stitch making a tube.

Yea, I have orange thread in the bobbin. Too lazy to change it.

Now, the tube is going to be smaller than the end of the sleeve/sock.

To make sure you sew it on evenly, place pins on each piece at half and quarter points.

Like so.

Now slide the knit tube over the sleeve and pin raw edges together, starting at the pinned points.

Then pin in between these pins, evenly distributing the excess fabric in the sleeve between pins.

The knit will stretch quite a bit too, but will bounce back.

Sew around the top edge with a zig-zag stitch.

This will help keep the raw edge from fraying and also will allow it to stretch.

For the other pair, I cut the collar off an old tee shirt and used that as the band,

just to see if it would work.

Cause I know not everyone has a fabric stash,

but most folks have old tee shirts.

It worked, but not as well. I really like the wider band better.

When I bought the sweaters, I thought I would come up with a way to attach them to a sock.

When I tried them on I discovered the benefit of making them this way, leg warmer style-

since they are open ended, you can reach inside to pull your pant leg down and straighten it.

You couldn't do that with regular socks.

I wore them last night and can officially give them two thumbs up.

They were comfortable, cute and best of all, cheap!

 

 Places I party:

 

 

Today was Alyssa's birthday

That's the only explanation I have for what happened today. It certainly wasn't planned. I had no idea when I woke up this morning that later in the day I'd be doing this.

My plan was to give her some money for her birthday,

but that isn't what she wanted.

What she wanted more than anything was for us to go get matching tattoos.

Wha??? Mother, daughter ink?

I'm not one of those cool moms.

I don't have tattoos.

Or, I didn't have any.

I woke up tattoo-less.

That was then,

This is now,

And of course, the birthday girl got one too.

She's 24 today!  How did that happen?

Are you wondering if it hurt?

It felt like being stung by a family of angry wasps. 

It wasn't pleasant, but not unbearable and best of all, it was pretty quick.

 

 

Princess of the pumpkin patch?

Bayleigh is going to be in a pageant.

Not the toddlers and tiaras kind of thing.

This one it put on by our local county parks and rec.

It's all about having fun and giving girls a chance to dress up.

The judging categories include a dressy-dress, a talent, and

tee-shirt decoration.

How fun is that part? Each contestant is given a Parks and Rec tee.

With the help of their parents, they are to decorate the tee in a way that keeps with the pageants theme,

Miss Pumpkin Patch.

You can do anything to the shirt, as long as the logo on front is still intact.

We have big plans.

This is Bayleigh's talent attire.

I LOVE making these little tutus. Love it!

I know what you're thinking. Talent? A three-year-old?

That's what I thought. What in the world does a three-year-old do for talent?

I'm so proud of Alyssa. She came up with the cutest, sweetest,  age-appropriate talent.

Bayleigh will decorate jack-o-lantern out of felt,

to this little song.

Like any three-year-old, Bayleigh is unpredictable.

You just never know what you're going to get.

Lets hope it's lots of this

and not so much of this.

Either way, I'm sure it will be fun.