Zulily

If you are a mom, and don't know about Zulily you are missing out.  It is a fantastic website.  Allow me to apologize for causing you to spend money ahead of time, but it is so worth it!  It is free to sign up for, and you can purchase things for mom's, kid's, baby's and home for typically 50-90% off of retail.  That's right.  I just ordered a bunch of super cute things for my baby girl and spent far less than I would have had I headed over to the store to buy them.  You can get anything from maternity clothes, to kids books, to shoes, to organizers, to jewelry (for mom and girls), to toys!

I'm not going to lie, I get referral credit (if you sign up following my link and make a purchase I get some Zulily credit) but I am addicted and want to buy more amazing things for my baby girl and sweet boy.  So please CLICK HERE and sign up.  You will not be disappointed, though your wallet may be.

Cheers!

Ashley

Spring Cleaning

I have been deep into spring cleaning around here.  Combine spring cleaning with nesting a = me being a crazy cleaning lady.  My list keeps growing, but things just keep getting done.  With a toddler to wrangle, and battling swollen feet due to the pregnancy things have been going a bit slower than I'd like but there is progress!  This week I...

Cleaned all the doors, baseboards, and closet doors in our home, they now shine, and don't have grubby toddler hand prints!

We aslo striped and washed the couch covers.  It is amazing that we didn't notice how dirty they were until we put them back on clean.  The couch looked ridiculous with out the covers on though, seriously have you guys looked at your couches without covers?

I aslo scrubbed the floors and moved furniture to do it.

I also cleaned up Max's room to try and make more space for his sister's stuff.  it was not as successful as I would have hoped, but I think with a bit more re-aranging I can make it work (I hope).

I also washed the "extras" you know that laundry that NEVER gets done.  Such as the highchair cover, carseat cover etc.  So nice to have these things look like new again!

Next up this week...
Spotting the carpets (assuming this new awesome product I ordered shows up on time)
Cleaning out and scrubbing the fridge
Wiping down the appliances
Windows and blinds

What is on your spring cleaning list?

Cheers!
Ashley

Nicotine stains

We have been living in our rented condo for nearly a year now.  When we moved in, the landlord had completely re-floored, re-painted and replaced all the appliances.  It has felt so new, that we nearly forgot there had been previous tenants.  Until my we turned on a humidifier in my sons room.  We ran it for nearly a week strait, and the back of his door looked like this:

So this is what happens when your landlord doesn't actually repaint and only wipes glossy surfaces that contain nicotine stains.  The nicotine hides in the wall, un-noticed until you use a humidifier, and they magically appear.  It is gross and sticky and made his whole room smell like smoke.   His room NEVER SMELLED before, it seriously was hiding in the walls.  In order to clean it off and deodorize I turned to vinegar.  The power this stuff has is AMAZING, it cleans and deodorizes and is like $2 a gallon!

I just pored the vinegar directly on a mico-fiber cleaning rag, misted the door with a spray bottle of water and wiped.  The door is so clean, shiny and most importantly no longer smells of smoke!

Our lease is up at the end of next month, and we will need to move sooner than later to make more room for our new special little addition who will be appearing at the end of May.  Not sure where or when, but as much as I love this place, it's things like this that make me hate renting.  Thankfully there are easy solutions such as vinegar for cleaning and getting rid of the smoke smell!

Cheers!

Ashley


PS I love to PARTY!  Blog link party that is, check out where I party by clicking here and join the fun.  Also, if you know of another great party, please share it with me so I can join the fun there too!