Sunday, February 28, 2010

DIY Fail: Cleaning Wool Rugs with Snow

A few weeks ago I spotted this Apartment Therapy post on cleaning a wool rug with snow. Brilliant!, I thought, I have a rug in desperate need of cleaning and now can finally put all the god-awful snow we've received to good use. I excitedly sent the link to the boyfriend. Go for it, he said.

But first I had to wait for fresh powdery snow. Mother nature obliged and on Saturday morning I hauled the rug shown above outside to clean. The boy and two of our three cats crowded into the kitchen window to watch the show, and what a show it was. I beat the stinkin' rug until my arms hurt (which took about 180 seconds) and then kept beating it. I flipped it over, dismayed not to see oodles of dirt in the snow, and flipped it again. Then I ground some snow in to the front for good measure to try and get more stains and dirt out. Didn't work.

Eventually I gave up and hauled the rug back up to the deck, hung it over the railing and beat it some more to try and get the excess snow off. My still-stained rug was now wet to boot, so with the boy's help I dragged it inside, into the basement and we hung it on the basement clothesline and I proceeded to consider the entire ordeal a giant bust.

The boyfriend jumped on his white stud of a computer (okay it's really black, but that didn't fit the analogy, now did it?) and called the rug cleaners and found a place where we could drop off the rug that day for cleaning for only $17. And that's where we stand until Monday, when I see if anything can save that darn rug.

To be fair, I did screw up on a few accounts:
  • It wasn't cold enough. The directions state to clean the rug on a day where it's well below freezing, which is wasn't, but patience has never been one of my virtues.

  • Grinding snow into the rug didn't help get out any stains and only contributed to the wetness issue.
Lessons learned: Don't use oxy-anything to clean a wool rug and when it needs a good cleaning, save yourself some agony and just take it to a rug cleaner already.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

More Kitchen Inspiration

We've been looking at countertop samples and talking about kitchen reno again. So I'm once again becoming obsessed with pictures of pretty. vintage-y kitchens. Two things that always get me: subway tile backsplash? Check. White cabinets? Check.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Snow Day!

last week's snowman got buried

I've been wishing for a snow day off and I finally got one, thanks to another 10" of new snow yesterday. It's pretty, as long as you don't have to go anywhere.

Care to sit and have a cup of tea?

Monday, February 15, 2010

It's About Time: My Art Gallery Wall

I have a specialized form of trypophobia, or fear of holes, in that I only fear putting holes in my plaster walls. Ok, I don't have a real phobia, but it does sometimes take me, um, years to commit to putting art up. Case in point, despite buying several pieces of art, I had not hung a single picture in my living room in five years, until now.

Yes, I jumped on the gallery wall bandwagon, albeit a few years late. That's one benefit of living in Ohio, trends hit years later if at all. So a couple of weeks ago, after a lot of plotting and planning, I was finally ready to hang some art. I figured out my favorite arrangement (after trying every possible combination, believe you me) and the boyfriend did the dirty work of measuring and drilling. Then ta-da, instant gallery wall. I'm amazingly happy with how it turned out.

About the art:
  • The large piece of art is a Marimekko tea towel in an IKEA Ribba frame, an idea I got from Anna at Door 16.
  • The two square pieces are several years old, from IKEA.
  • The blue flower is a print I got a few years ago from a local art/craft show.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

It's the Little Things: Mini Heirloom Tomatoes

I squealed in delight when I saw these cute little pint containers of organic heirloom tomatoes at the Anderson's last night. I would kill for a real, tasty tomato right now.

"LOOK, look how cute! They're HEIRLOOMS!" I squealed.

"So buy some." The ever-stoic boyfriend said.

And so I did.

Sadly, since they were shipped from Mexico, I'm pretty sure they won't taste as good as they look (the green ones were pretty, umm, strong), and I'll still be craving a real homegrown tomato until, oh July. *sniffle* But aren't they cute?

Mini heirlooms, who knew?

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