Chez Larsson

Dishy Dishcloths

One of the things I bought with my awesome Panduro gift card was a whole bunch of plain white cellulose dishcloths. I also got me some fabric markers. Above you see my first project which was trying some of those markers out. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Fun!

 
There are so many ways these dish cloths can be decorated and one way is to stamp. I had the textile paint from a previous project from years ago and used the back of a pencil as my tool, a trick I saw in a Martha mag years ago.

 
Another option is to make templates. Here’s one I made with my initial. I just printed it out on paper and cut with a craft knife and then dabbed on the textile paint with a sponge. A paper template like this can only be used once because it will get wet.

 
Martin drew directly onto a piece of paper and cut his design out and being a sailor his choice of motif was kind of a no brainer.

If you want your template to last longer you can cut it out of plastic which Martin tried after the paper version. He used an old page protector and it worked really well.

Of course the paint can be painted on with a brush too and if you want guidelines there’s this handy pen that comes out purple but the color vanishes after a couple of days or after being wet. I can't find the direct link for it on the Panduro page unfortunately.

 
Wille used the pen to create a grid for one of his designs which you can see at the very bottom of this post.

 
Freehand drawing with the markers is another way of embellishing the cloths. Martin drew on paper first and then used the drawing as a guide to draw it with the marker.

 
One of Wille’s designs is a bar code and he used a ruler for that which worked well too.

 
Doodling was the most fun. I just went nuts with the green marker. It felt a bit like being back in kindergarten filling in my pattern book. Then Wille made a green doodle one too. His ended up looking really good, no kindergarten look for him.

 
I doodled away some more and made a yellow heart one. This was so much fun and I love when a craft isn’t purely for decoration but can be used too.

 
Here’s the result of Wille’s purple grid. A binary code design. What it says? Crumbs, spill, dirt etc in Swedish :)

Oh, almost forgot, the fabric marker designs can be used after 12 hours without any special treatment but you need to heat set the ones painted with fabric paint by ironing. Just follow the instructions on the paint. I still need to do this on ours.

~

Ps. I'm a guru! Haha, I promise I am! I was invited by Franklin Covey to share some organizing posts on their blog Get Organized. Check out my first one here.

Removing Tea Stains From Cups

I hate these tea stains and since we don't have a dish washer which usually takes care of them I've often resorted to scrubbing with heavy duty scotch bright sponges. Not any more!

If you haven't heard of these magic environmentally friendy (EDIT: This is debatable see comment section)sponges you will now. There are quite a few brands out there like Mr Muscle and the one I got Miljösvampen and the great thing about them is that you don't need any chemicals, just a drop of water to moist the sponge a little.

I've had several of these at home and have cleaned my white trainers, scuff marks on the floor, finger prints on doors etc. Beware that they can dull a surface though so don't use it on glossy delicate surfaces or precious painted areas.

So after having previously scrubbed like mad I tried the sponge in my cup. It took ONE WIPE. No elbow grease, just a little soft wiping action and that's the result above. Pretty amazing, huh?!

My cup is clean as a cup should be and my sponge receives a gold star for performance! And no I'm not endorsed by Sponge Bob here, I just like him.

Ps. And yes, you guessed it, I don't usually wait this long before I clean the tea stains from my cup but I wanted to prove a point here, people. Think of the hardships I go through for you guys!

Displaying the Simpsons

Duh! What's cooking? Nothing really but the Simpson characters in Wille's room all had fuzzy hairdo's and instead of dusting them I tossed them all into a colander and gave them a communal shower.


Since all these little dudes and dudettes keep collecting dust and I'm kind of sick of lifting each and everyone to dust around and underneath I popped the smaller ones into jars.



So they're like all still there but some of them have a different view than before. Oops, looks like Maggie's biting the dust.

Wille's ok with the change, I love it and Bart said he's fine with looking up another butt as long as it's his own.

Cleaning a Clogged Shower Head

Does showering drive you nuts too when the water's squirting all over the place? Our shower head had been doing just that for a little while.


I read about this vineger in a plastic bag tip somewhere. I've done the "soak in vinegar" thing before in a bowl but this requires much less vinegar. What the vinegar does? It dissolves the lime scale that builds up in the shower head clogging the holes.


The plastic bag helps keep the vinegar where you want it, inside AND out. Also the plastic bag keeps the stinky smell at bay, you want this to soak for quite a while. I kept mine in there for several hours. You could of course do this in the shower with the hose and all intact but I chose to remove the head and to it in the kitchen instead.


After removing the bag I used a pin to make sure all the holes were unclogged. Then I rinsed the shower head with fresh water.


Testing testing...success! Now we just have the issue of poor water pressure and varying temperatures to deal with. I'm leaving that part to Martin to either DIY or get a pro in. I can seriously not do every single thing around the house. Can you hear me being a tad annoyed at my husband? It's because I am. Very a tad.
 

Too Much of a Good Thing

My mom had this thing about trying new hair and body products. I say had because the photos below are from when I visited last time in November. The photo above is from this weekend. As you'll see she's come a long way.


These are all the products that cluttered up the shower stall and the bathtub. Nothing was full and nothing was entirely empty either. With mom's approval I tossed some of the stuff that she didn't like and then I decanted what little there as in some bottles into one with schampoo, one with conditioner and one with soap.

Then I forbade her to buy a single new bottle until she had used up the one's she still had. Haha!  But it worked! When I arrived at her house last Thursday I was amazed that there were exactly three bottles (one in the shower stall and two by the tub) out and after sneaking a peek in her cabinet noticed that she hadn't stocked up with new ones either. Way to go mom!

Please excuse the quality of these photos btw, they were taken with my cell phone. Remind me not to do that ever again.