If you are decluttering, toss these first! (May contain bad news...)

 ...bad news if you are really attached to vintage Pyrex/Corning Ware/Corelle dishes, mixing bowls and baking items. You know, those really nice, sturdy, good-feeling dishwasher-able dishes that your mother and grandmothers had in their kitchens. Ah the nostalgia!

I am interrupting our regular content to send out this public service announcement. I tried a regular lead test from the hardware store on these older kitchenware items this morning, and they instantly tested positive. I wasn't surprised because I had read about this recently. But I'm sentimental and I'm frugal and thought I would just try it for myself before committing to toss them.

The cup (Nancy's coffee cups-- boo hoo!) I tested on the rim. We were using them a lot because they were kept in a handy spot. Besides, they were almost indestructible and felt nice in the hand. The baking dishes I did over the decals.

Although some websites state that the inside is probably okay, the paint and decals on the outside are inevitably scratched and leaching lead. Plus, you are washing the leaching dishes with your other dishes. It's not worth it. So I filled up a box with vintage glass kitchen items from my favorite people to send to the dump.

If you love it a lot, keep it as decor but don't eat from it. I decided that I would rather have the cupboard space, and chose to keep my grandmother's antique teacups for my display spaces instead of vintage Pyrex.

Thankfully the lead tests did not at all register on my modern fine china (I even broke and extra saucer to test all surfaces inside and out), although I undertstand that those tests are not perfect. For a not- perfect test to instantly pick up on the lead of all the old Pyrex and Corning dishes, though-- that's good enough for me!

You can find quite a lot of info online if you need more help letting go. Think of it this way: you get to buy yourself some new dishes now! 

Hidden Dirt and Airing the Laundry

Boy if that isn't a "click-bait" title! A post this boring needs that kind though.

In hopes that this could be useful to someone, I am going to post a bit of a laundry horror story:)

I had an extra project going on last week that was none too pleasant: fixing the smelly washing machine. I don't mean that the work was unpleasant, but the increasing unwashed piles of laundry and the family precariously on the edge of not having a change of clothes for a week wasn't so nice!

Our washer was new six years or so ago, and it has been through washing rags of from all aspects of construction, sawdust, and the daily household laundry of a family living on a bare building site with blowing desert dust, oh and rags from cleaning off the yearly wildfire smoke from the walls. 

For a while now, since being more closed-up in an almost-finished house, the washer has smelled increasingly of mold. Airing it out, using the "clean washer" setting, using bleach, and dumping in vinegar had no effect. The clothes recently started smelling like the washer! So did the house! I knew that it needed to be taken apart and the mold found and cleaned. 

I started with a google search and did not need to look any further than this blog post.

From there I went to YouTube to look up my particular washer, or as close as I could get it. There are lots of videos on disassembling a washing machine, and some appliance parts stores have put up very helpful videos for the DIY-er (like this one).

 It was helpful to look into this ahead of time, and order parts and tools needed before I took things apart. I knew that the week I was waiting for tools to be shipped to me that I should do as much laundry as I could so I would not be behind if this project took me a couple days. Honestly I was reluctant to do much because I was sure the clothes were not getting clean anymore.

My tools came and although I could have done the disassembly by myself, it is always nice to have company! Especially when they decide to take over doing the work. Each step of the way I had the internet up and ready. Besides watching YT, pausing, doing, watching, pausing, doing, I also looked up videos that had to do with the particular place on the washer I needed to disassemble, and there are plenty of them. DIYers are sure generous!

Once I had the top off and the agitator off, we could see some yucky stuff, not pretty but it wasn't black mold at least. It was mud and rust.

The rusty metal parts now had to be disassembled. This is where it took 2 days of WD-40 and Vinegar soaks. I am not sure that pouring hot boiling water on it did much but I went ahead and tried that, too. Next day I just did WD-40 and alternated treatments of that with pounding a spanner wrench with a rubber mallet. 

The third day, Mr. Humphrey stepped in and got that first rusty nut off the washer  (and no, "rusty nut" is not my nickname). He was then faced with a rusty drive collar. By then I was starting to wonder if I should take the clothing to a laundromat. 

 

{GROSS ALERT!}

Using several YouTuber suggestions, he tried a c-clamp and other tools, got a stronger assistant and was able to get the rusty stuff off and the inner tub out! Finally we could get to the outer tub, and THIS is what was in it:

A pile of mud. 

No wonder my whites never stayed white, nor did bleach do a thing to help them. 

Basically I was just putting sort-of dirty clothing in to swish in muddy water with some ineffective soap.

And I should have connected some dots and known what was happening, for our "soil" out here (if you could call the blowing dust that on this mountain side) is a grounded chalk-rock type stuff mixed with ash and dirt. When it rains, it makes a clay-like mud that sticks to our shoes like glue. It would make sense that a lot of the finer dust would turn to sticky mud in the washer, and glue the dirt with it. It looks like sludge but it was more like a stiff mud, and scraped off in wide strips under my plastic spackling knife. 

What I didn't find, and was rather surprised not to, was black mold growing up the sides of the tub, nor did I find gobs of wet sawdust. Not even hair clogs or gooey lint. Just mud. 

Ah... so much better!

Though it seems silly to post pictures of the inner tub of a washer, you have no idea how rewarding it is to look at it until you have tried this washer-cleaning thing yourself!

This is a "self cleaning" washer by the way, there is no lint filter in my machine. We even unscrewed the drain part and washed under it.

The inner tub wasn't too bad, but had a thin coating of goo and ick and so we gave it a good scrub. 

By that time it was getting dark and late, and we were glad to get the washer back together again and end this project. 

Unlike Humpty Dumpty, the washer did go back together again quite well! But since we were being thorough, there were a couple more things that we cleaned. I suspected that the washer tray (a great big plastic thing) was harboring something. We lifted the washer and slid the tray out, which was pretty bad with dirt as well. Besides that, it had suffered a bit from the construction and had "great stuff" and tar splattered on it.

My husband was putting the drain hose to rights when it came into his mind to disconnect it and clean it out (it is rather long and opaque, I know some folks have a clear hose but we could not tell what was going on in this one).

We took it to the shower and dialed the shower head to "turbo blast jet" mode, turned on the hot water and blasted down the end of the hose. 

I do not have a photo of what followed, and it is too bad because it would have been a really good addition to a post about gross washers.

After the hose seemed clear of mud flakes, I turned it around and thought I'd just back-rinse it.

We rinsed and rinsed and rinsed that hose both ways about 6 times, and never got to the end of the brown flakes coming out. We gave up, because of fatigue and the late hour, and said maybe when the washer drained it would take care of the rest.

Folks, if you don't want to take your washer apart, you might just start with cleaning out the drain hose!

Washer all connected, the first load we did was the rags we used during the whole yucky process. I did stand there waiting for the drain cycle (maybe I was a little tired...). I could hear my drain hose sounded like a waterfall! That was different.

And I don't know anyone who does this, so it might sound a little crazy: I stick my head in the washer how and just revel in the "new appliance" smell. I also bury my nose in the loads coming out of the dryer, happy that they smell sweet! The room smells nice, the house smells nice, and it was worth the trouble.

By the end of one amazing Monday I had empty laundry baskets and stacks of folded clothes. It was so nice to start Tuesday with a bare laundry room floor.

I will probably have to repeat this washer-cleaning every year, to keep the sticky mud from building up, but don't worry I won't make another gross post about it!

Holiday Hint: Mug Scarves

Here's an idea for entertaining during the winter holidays (or just the family at home!): give each of your cocoa mugs a colorful felt "scarf" tied around the handle. It will help people remember which cup is theirs. Use a 1/2 inch by 4 inch strip and tie once around the mug handle (it has to be removable for washing so don't tie a double knot!). Sparkly or printed felt would be extra nice!

Watch Your Step

Today in the nursery corner, we are talking about watching your step. 

We want to be careful not to step on things that are not meant to be stepped on. 

The floor, steps, and rugs are made to be stepped on. 

Toys, books, clothing, and lots of other objects are not made for people to step on! 

Children in the...

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Sometimes you may be so busy playing that you may not notice all the objects you have left on the floor. Maybe you left the toys you were playing with earlier there, while you went to read a book. Or you may have left your book on the floor, while you went to play with toys! If you step all over your books and toys, instead of picking them up and putting them away, you ruin them. Even if it looks like no harm was done, eventually that ill-used toy or book will wear away or tear. Even if you do not damage the toys, an older, bigger person might not see them, and tread on them and break them. Then you will have to throw your toy or book away.

You may think it is fun to step on something that someone dropped, or something that fell. It would be better to pick it up, than to step on it. Walking on items will ruin them. 

You may think, "I'll just buy another one," but you want to be a good care-taker of what God has given you already. Some of your things might not be replaceable. What if you became very, very poor? You would be sorry that you treated all your things badly, and wish you had them still. If you take good care of your toys and books, they will last a long time, and you will be glad someday that you were careful. 

Toys and books on the floor, or toys left scattered in the yard, can cause a person to trip and fall. Older people who cannot see well, or even little toddlers who are just learning to walk, can hurt themselves very badly on your things if you leave them laying around. You may even surprise yourself and trip over your own toys! 

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Jan C. Verhas

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Sometimes stepping on things without thinking, or checking first, can lead to cuts on the feet. Even with shoes on, you can still get hurt by not watching what you step on. Sometimes children will think that they are free to walk all over loose wood that is laying about the barn or wood shop-- but watch out because those boards can sometimes have nails in them that are dangerous to step on. Here is something to remember in places like that: Don't step on something that you can step around or step over. 

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And of course, in the house try to pick things up instead of stepping on them, so they will not be stepped on by someone else!

Editor's note: The paintings accompanying this little lecture, that are without captions, are: "Christmas Morning" by Paul Seignac, "Christmas Morning" by Charles William Mansel Lewis, and "Die Kinderstube" [The Nursery] by Fritz Von Uhde. The title piece is "Storytime" by Charles Haigh-Wood. 

Homemaking Tips & Ideas

Here is an idea of a recipe for this frozen dessert. I wanted to call it a "sorbet" but it isn't a proper sorbet, as it has whipped cream in it, and I believe sorbets are dairy-free, so if falls into the Sherbet category (maybe). It should be named "leftover sherbet" only that isn't a very appetizing name, is it? I was trying to clear out some space in the refrigerator, and combined thing and froze them to get this dessert!

From the refrigerator, take all the near-empty juice jugs that only have an inch of juice in them and combine. Add leftover sliced fruit. Puree. Fold in leftover whipped cream.

Here's what was in mine:
Orange juice
Grape juice
Grapefruit juice (this may or may not have been a mistake, depending on your family's feelings towards grapefruit!)
Sliced strawberries (which made it a luscious pink!)
Honey-sweetened whipped cream

You could combine canned fruits with juice, or puree fresh fruit. The whipped cream folded in at the last is what really makes it special.

Freeze in a pan such as a cake pan or loaf pan. STIR EVERY 10-15 MINUTES until desired consistency is reached. This is a project for an afternoon at home!

If for some reason you have leftovers, and it freezes solid overnight, let it spend some time in the refrigerator the next day, and it will be scoop-able.

***

It is good to have routines, to look ahead, to be conscience of what comes next or what needs to be done in your housework. But it is also good to ditch all your plans on a sunny day and play games on the lawn with the children, and make root beer floats when it is hot outside, and create a few family memories.

***

Here's a good tip to help with the above: about 20 minutes before the bedtime routine starts, gather your children to you, give them instructions on tidying up a room, and set a timer: yes, this is on of the variations of the FlyLady's 5 minute room rescue. It really works! With your children helping, you can get your living room toy-and -paper-and-clothing-free and straightened in less than five minutes, because racing against the timer is fun! Add in any other rooms that contain family clutter, or have them a quick pick-up in their own rooms. 20 minutes can get a big chunk of the house looking quite nice and give a good start to the next day.

***

If you are an overwhelmed mother and you want to keep a clean house, don't give toddlers trash to play with... paper packaging, boxes, sales postcards, junk mail etc. It is tempting to keep the little one quiet and occupied, but if you are having housecleaning problems, don't do it! 

***

I understand the plight of mothers of newborns who have trouble keeping the clutter down. When you are expecting a baby, or have a baby in your arms all the time (or in a sling) it is next to impossible to bend over and get all the things that fall to the floor, rolled under furniture or have been left by another child. You have to wait until the time comes when you can get down to the floor and clean it all up, and maybe in the meantime for safety's sake you have to use your foot to clear paths and scoot stuff out of the way. If you have a toddler around, remember that they are closer to the floor-- train them to pick up all that stuff and hand it to you when you sweetly ask them! If you do not have a short person around, or any other help for that matter, remember to pick stuff up when you have free hands! Not being able to bend over for a month or two can get you in the habit of ignoring what is down there under the furniture.  

***

Here is an interesting link on the different curtain terms.
Here is a link on the different styles of English antiques.

***

Girl Sweeping  by  William McGregor Paxton

How to make your yard look bigger: 

mow, trim all the tall grasses around trees, fences, etc.

How to make your house look cleaner, even when cluttered:

Sweep and vacuum floors. It is amazing what a difference clean floors will make.

How to make your house look brighter: 

dust the walls and vacuum the cobwebs from walls and ceilings. Wash the curtains.

Here are some things to keep in mind about the above-mentioned cobweb removal:

I like to use the vacuum cleaner. I'd rather not clean a broom or duster of sticky cobwebs. Get all the extensions you can on the hose of the vacuum cleaner for longest reach. I have a lightweight vacuum cleaner, so I was able to lift it by the handle on the back to aid in reaching the ceiling (The handle on the back is not the handle used to push the vacuum with-- some cheaper models will break apart if you lift them the wrong way!)

This isn't dusting-- this is cobweb removal. Therefore, keep the vacuum hose well away from glass, teapots on shelves, etc!

Walls and ceilings are easily scratched-- be careful not to scrape your vacuum hose along.

Turn on all the lights and open the curtains so you can see everywhere. Look at the room from different areas/angles to make sure you got everything.

Some places to look for spider webs:
The corners of the ceiling
The corners of the walls
Across the ceiling
Along the crown moulding
By light fixtures (be careful not to break the bulbs! And heaven help you if you break a CLE bulb.)
In the corners of doorways
Along the top of the doorway moulding
The door hinges (open all doors and check them out)
Along the tops of kitchen cupboards
Ceiling or wall-mounted heater vents
The tops of tall, little used book shelves
The tops of picture frames
Inside the stove vent hood
Inside/on the utility areas: heater closet, water heater, etc.
Anywhere you can imagine that a spider would be able to connect a web from one point to another.

Start at the top. Take the vacuum cleaner through the house and get ALL the cobwebs off of ALL the ceilings and corners in EVERY room. You will be impressed at how bright the rooms will become. If you wash the windows, it will probably get brighter, but that is a job for another day.

Now go and make a batch of cookies!

"It just needs new curtains!"

The title for this post is a quote from Betty, who said that about some old run down house in Australia. I happened to see the need for a curtain in a run-down old room in my house, and truly it does make a difference! 

The photo below is a portion of the laundry room. It is awaiting its "Cinderella" moment and so little has been done in the decorating department, excepting for a few shelves put up, and a couple of paintings done by a neighbor placed to brighten laundry chores. The window is sadly lacking in a lot of ways-- it unfortunately looks out on a tyvek covered wall, the sacrifice for having another room built beyond it. I'm sure that there was  a covering intended for the window, perhaps waiting for that day when the laundry room gets its overhaul. I thought it was time to make a temporary covering for it; and as we all know that anything temporary tends to stay in houses for the next ten years, I thought I should have fun and make it decorative. 

Before

After!

This is a lot more "playful" of a look than I am used to making, but since the paintings (done by a folk artist next door) are so bright, I thought the curtain should reflect that brightness. I had a lot of scraps of pretty prints that went perfectly. 

Banner Curtain Tutorial

Here's how I made the curtains:

Some of the prints were cut into 4" squares and made into prairie points. I know that isn't the most efficient way to make triangles, but prairie points are such a delightful waste of fabric! 

Fold the square in half on the diagonal, 

and in half again. Voila, a prairie point. 

For the scallops, trace half a teacup on cardboard, to make a template. Trace around the template on two layers of fabric. sew around the curved part and leave the straight edge open for turning. I simply folded some of the scraps in half, or used other scraps to back the scallops. Trim after sewing. I started out snipping around the curve to make a nice flat scallop, but after a few times of doing that, I started trimming them within 1/8 of the stitching line. Turn and press. 

Here are all the points and scallops right sides out and pressed. 

The finished size of each was close to 3" across. 

Pin them to the curtain upside down, and slightly overlapping each other. 

I used eyelet for the curtain, which gave me a sort of "grid" to lay these out on. Otherwise, I would have ironed a crease or marked my fabric with the lines needed for placement.

Sew across the bottoms of the scallops and points, with a 1/4 seam allowance. 

Carefully iron the scallops and points over, to show the right sides. 

Stitch along the top of the line of scallops and points. I used a decorative stitch for the fun of it. 

Stand back and squeal at what a cute project this is turning out to be! Ooh, wouldn't it make a cute table cloth for a playhouse or birthday party? Or a playful tea cozy? What else could I do with these?

Using bigger scraps, I sewed a casing across the top of the curtain after hemming the sides. 

Someday when the laundry room is renovated, the exposed water-pipes covered nicely, and paint slapped on everything in sight, there may be new curtains. I think, though, that this curtain is so utterly cute it will be a "keeper!"

How To Boil Water

Why is it important to know how to boil water? Won't any hot water do for cooking? Can't I just use hot water from the tap?

No. 

Recipes call for things to be hot, to be simmering, to be boiling or to be brought to "a rolling boil." Failure to follow these specific instructions can make things taste awful! Foods like rice or pasta will not cook correctly!

The tea will not steep! 

The Young James...

Marcus Stone

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Black teas and herbal tea will not steep right unless the water is at the right temperature. It will taste like blah hot water with some sort of flavoring in it (I realize there are specific temperatures for specific teas, and I won't go into that in this post). The hot water coming out of the regular kitchen tap is nowhere near boiling temperature. What that hot tap water is good for, is filling into the teapot to warm it up while you are waiting for the water in the tea kettle to boil. Once the tea kettle water is boiling, you can dump out the tap water from the teapot and then make the tea with boiling water, without the fear of your teapot cracking. 

Why is it important to go on and on about this? As someone who likes milk in my tea, which cools it down, I like to start with a really hot cup of tea. Otherwise when I pour the milk in, I get a lukewarm serving. The way I see it is, if you can place your hand on the teapot and hold it there for even a second, it isn't hot enough.

So on to how to boil water! 

 First, use cold tap water. Cold. Not lukewarm, not warmish and NOT hot!

 Run the water for a while before filling your kettle-- it will also get the "sitting in the pipe" flavor out of the water-- and will be nice and cold. 

Now, set the pot or kettle of cold water on the stove and turn the burner on to "high." A lid on the pot will help it to heat up faster.

 See the steam coming up from the water? It isn't boiling. It's hot but it isn't boiling, so do not pour this into the teapot yet! Or put in the pasta yet!

 Aha-- see the bubble in the middle of all that steam? It isn't boiling. Don't use it yet.

 Now there are lots of little bubbles-- and it even sounds noisy. Don't turn off the burner! It isn't boiling yet! You can tell the water is boiling when it quits making noise and starts to be quiet. If you do not have a tea kettle with a whistle, please resist the urge to turn off the burner because there is noise in the kettle. It isn't ready yet! 

Rapid little bubbles means it is simmering. 

Now you can see that the water is boiling. That is, large bubbles racing up to the top of the water. 

 And here we are getting to the rolling boil. A rolling boil may be called for in some recipes. If you start out with a good rolling boil for some cooking, the water will return to a boil very quickly after you put the food in (Sometimes recipes say to bring water  TO a boil. In that case you don't want the water to go on and on and on before using it). 

 Boiling water is turbulent--

 like a stormy sea--

When you lift up the kettle to pour it into the teapot, and you can feel that the water is still moving inside, then that is a good strong boil. And now you are allowed to use it to make  that lovely, hot pot of tea!

The New Hutch

Needing some extra storage, I started haunting craigslist looking for a china hutch. I checked the site twice (or more) a day for a week, and one day this one came up. It was just my style! I had been thinking of getting an old, dark hutch and painting it, but it seemed like a huge project to undertake, and at the end of summer when I'm not sure how long this sunny weather will last. This hutch, however, had already been painted and re-done by someone who knew what they were doing! And in a color I like, a style I like, and just the right price for me! 

The chicken wire replaced some old yellow bubble-looking glass, I was told. It is charming and "country" this way. I bought the hutch not just for china; I needed storage for a lot of things-- fabric, crafts, and tea cups. I have this idea that a china hutch will be more versatile than a tall closed cabinet, or plastic storage drawers (done that already), as it looks good in the living room, dining room, the kitchen or a craft room. I had seen a sewing studio tour on this blog and thought that the color of her shelves really made the fabric colors "pop." This hutch is the same sort of color, and it looks really good with all the pinks in my fabric stash!

Here is the inside. Why, thank you, yes I do know how to stuff a china hutch to the gills.
And I'm going to need another hutch for the rest of the teacups I think, not to mention the china...

In one of the drawers is a stack of antique magazine pages-- this one featuring embroidery ideas "for the April Bride" that are "First Aids Toward Efficiency For The New Housekeeper." Some day when I can remember to take them along with me to town, I'll find a large scanner and post them here for you. 

Because of the cups in the hutch, I'm Joining Teacup Thursday!

Uses for Laundry Baskets

Hanging The...

Mildred Lyon...

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There are many uses for a laundry basket-- every household could benefit by having several!
Here are some of the uses for a good, sturdy laundry basket:
The laundry, of course-- dirty, clean, wet or dry.
Storage-- for sheets, blankets or pillows. Good for toys, too.
Quick Cleaning-- a sort of storage system for the mess for later. Here's how: take several baskets, and designate one for cloth, one for paper, one for toys, one for books, etc. Have the children sort & toss. Then when you have time later, sit in an easy chair and pull up one of the baskets to sort. Or if you are in a big hurry, you can take a basket and throw everything into it, and sort it later. Children can sort it or they can be "gophers" and run the doll back to the toy room, the book back to the shelf, the sweater back to the closet, etc.
Toting-- put one in the trunk of the car when you go shopping. Load the grocery bags into it for a smooth ride home (no rolling milk jugs) and to make it easy to carry it all in at once when you get home.
Family Picnic Basket-- nice a roomy to take everything with you on a family picnic
A Car-- every child loves to crawl into a laundry basket to take a ride! Or take the toys for a ride.
Portable Sewing Room-- if you have to take a sewing machine and set it up in the dining room, you can put it in the basket, and your project, too, and store it out of the way during mealtimes.
A "Bushel" Basket-- use a laundry basket to hold the harvest of potatoes or apples.
A Napping Place-- maybe the cat needs its own laundry basket and soft blanket for napping in, instead of on top of the clean clothes.
A Gift--Don't forget that a nice, sturdy laundry basket makes a great present, for a wedding shower, housewarming, or baby shower (one extra person in the house, no matter how small, requires another laundry basket).

Clothesline Fresh

Kate Ward...

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