Pinterest treasures

With some chagrin, I admit that I have become quite fascinated by Pinterest.

I tend to avoid trends like the plague, but my sweet sister (who was also, incidentally, the one [animal lover] who convinced me [not-animal-lover] that my life would never be complete if we didn't have an indoor dog) introduced me to it one day. The girls and I had gone over to her place to visit.

She makes the most amazing food, so I had invited myself to stay for lunch :). 

After we settled the kids with a video, we grabbed a cup of fresh, hot coffee and talked about whatever we could fit into 15 quiet minutes (not that the video was only 15 minutes long, but that's generally the full length of the quiet window of opportunity).

And she, who will always be infinitely cooler than I am, whipped out her laptop and introduced me to the world of Pinterest.
And life has never been the same.

I will admit, Pinterest gets a lot of flack. There's a lot of ick content on there, but if you only search for recipes, kid crafts and christmas decorations, it filters out pretty quickly. Also, there is a bit of a battle, so it seems, between Pinterest moms (moms who do these super amazing crafts with their kids and let them do crazy things like finger paint .... for fun ... I hyperventilate around finger painting....) and moms who aren't as much into those things but feel a terrible sense of guilt because of it. Sigh.

BUT, this summer I found a WINNER.
And it has to do with (...suspense building...) LAUNDRY.
YES. It's fascinating. I know.

I will blog about it soon, but lately the LORD has been working in my heart a matter of simplicity, and how it can begin (or continue, rather) to apply to my life. I've been evaluating everything from cleaners (actually quite trendy, but as usual I'm lagging behind, perhaps my own form of trend-rebellion) to food ... even to blogging ... and well, all of life actually. It's great, and I'm learning tons.... and I'm also learning things that just don't work for me right now too :).

In my travels through this particular topic, I came across a natural laundry cleaner that will remove THE most stubborn stain you'll ever encounter....
stains bleach can't fix it ....
boiling vinegar water can't cure it ....
nothing short of tossing a t-shirt will remedy.
Armpit. stains.

At first I contemplated taking pictures of all this, to document it like the cool bloggers do.
But then I thought again, and somehow posting pictures of airing my dirty laundry (no pun intended) just didn't seem very suave. So. Google it. You'll find scads of pictures of dirty armpit shirts that are magically white and bright and beautiful and smell lovely again.

Try this. Your summer t-shirts will THANK YOU for it.
And you'll minimize that pile of icky clothes that you're not ready to part with.
And you'll re-add a few treasures to your wardrobe.
And you'll have accomplished this in less than 10 minutes, probably less than 10 cents.
See? Simplicity.... if there was ever any doubt.....

Check out THIS PINTEREST LINK for details...
The claim says:

Goodbye to yellow armpit stains! 1 tsp. Dawn, 3-4 tsp. Hydrogen Peroxide, 2 tbsp. baking soda. Mix together, rub in, and be amazed!

One spot said 3-4 tsp one said TBSP. I didn't know that at first and went with tsp. It worked well. Maybe TBSP would be even better???

Oh, and in case this wasn't clear ---- not only white t-shirst, but ANY t-shirts. I've used this on a variety of colours and not noticed any negative effect on the fabric. If you have a $90 t shirt that you're nervous about, try it on a cheaper version first, just to be safe :).

So there you have it. A pinterest treasure.
But, in case you're like me, and need to laugh at pinterest too from time to time..... I had a chuckle over this one ;)....... Pinterest Nailed-It

ps - If you're a Pinterest Mom, bless you. :)

Summer love

Seems like there are summer-love blog posts just about everywhere these days :).
And rightly so. There's something so life-giving about the vibrancy of colour, the flip-flop tan lines, the jungle garden forming in the background, the cup of tea on the deck at the end of a full day.

Between the learning and growing and refining moments :), some fun ways we've found to celebrate these hazy days....

During the hot hot days, we pull out the sprinkler!

Poor pooch, as the unofficial "smaller brother" of an almost-all-gal crew around here, he gets signed up for a lot more than he bargained for!

Summer skies --- courtesy of M :).

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS. Since we don't have a local library, a neighboring community offers us out-of-towners a summer rate of TEN BUCKS!!! for a membership. It's fabulous. A trip to the library. A stop at a park for lunch. Home for nap time. Voila. Summer love!

Camping with family - camp fires, smores, crazy cousins and, of course, the karaoke aunties ;).

Living as much as possible on the deck. Crayons and notebooks, snacks, the very rare-but-ever-lovely quiet moment ;)....

And PUZZLES! This has been a winner this year. In June, my heart was looking forward to connecting with M during those afternoon quiet times. I don't do this every day, because frankly, it takes energy and sometimes I just need to go find my own corner for a little while. But another MCC bargain - puzzle mat and 750-piece puzzle. It's perfect because M loves marine life and this is a tropical fish picture. When we need a quiet-wind-down activity, we whip it out. Sometimes we're quiet. Sometimes we giggle. And we're now at the point where one of us asks for the wonky scoopy piece with a little bit of blue and an orange knobby part and the other one knows exactly where she's seen that piece before. If you're a puzzler, you'll know what I mean ;).