Busy bee

I've been busy busy busy bustling around trying to get ready for our roadtrip back to Vegas for Jeff's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary (it's a big deal!) and - as a bonus - a chance for me to see and hug all my friends that I miss so much. Many of my friends have new babies or are pregnant ready to pop and I'm sort of notorious for making handmade gifts so I've been very busy finishing those up. Of course, in true me fashion, I wait until the last minute to get it all done and then have heaps to do at once. Rest assured, all the gift making has been completed thanks to an extremely cooperative Bean who has been content to sit next to me while I sew and play picnics with her baby dolls. I busted out two new sock monsters in a day and a half, and I love how they turned out!

They're so cute, and I had so much fun posing them and taking pictures. (Picture me, in my pajamas, hair a mess - since crafting takes precedence over how I look - squatting down low in the grass, laughing to myself, while cars drive by the apartment, drivers no doubt wondering what the crazy lady was doing with the toys in the grass. hahaha!) Perhaps I'm partial, but I totally think my monsters have tons of personality. Just look at them! They have quirky attitude and are unapologetic about it. Love them!

When I haven't been crafting I've been baking - because it's fall. That means my house needs to smell nice and I have to have carby sweets on hand at all times. Duh. Or cleaning, like spring-cleaning style cleaning... but I guess I'll call this fall-cleaning, even though no one else does it. I play by my own rules, ok? If you walked into my house right now you'd call me liar. Tell me that I haven't been cleaning like a mad man because it's still cluttered as fuh, but I assure you. I've been dusting (my most loathed chore), I've been wiping toilet bases (they get incredibly dusty... who woulda thunk?!), and cleaning out window tracks. My house is ALWAYS cluttered. Always. We have way too much stuff for this little apartment and a 23lb tornado toddler who doesn't like anything to be put away for more than about 4.68 seconds. But, I like to think that I keep a clean house. It's usually not all clean at once, but I make sure to clean the bathroom, vacuum, mop, do laundry, clean the kitchen weekly - even if they're all done on different days of the week, they still get done weekly. But, I'm a bit grossed out at my findings with the deep cleaning.

The glass sliding door, for example. Since we moved into the apartment the track of the glass sliding door has always been dirty. The seal on that window is so ridic, it's not even CLOSE to being air tight. In the winter if you're sitting at the computer (which is next to the sliding door) it's a good 10*-15* colder than the rest of the living room. It'd make sense, then, that dust and dirt would blow in from the outside on the many drafts a day. Every time I vacuum I run the hose over the track and it sucks up some of the dirt, but never all of it. And I was always too lazy scatter brained to remember to do get down on my hands and knees and scrub it. But, I did just that on Monday. I didn't take a before picture, but I took a half way through the process picture, and then an after picture. In the first one, just pretend that both halves are equally dirty, k? Also... don't judge me by my filthy sliding glass door track.  I had JUST vacuumed it before busting out the vinegar, paper towels, and took this picture. It was vacuumed 4 mins before this picture was taken! :-/

Ahhhh! I'm so embarrassed that I put that out into the internets!! That dirt and grime was stuck on there! On Pinterest I found a link that had tips on deep cleaning your windows and their tracks, and it prompted me to look down at the sliding door track to see if mine needed a deep cleaning. I was (obviously) appalled and wrote "clean window tracks!!!" on my to-do list for stuff I wanted to tackle before going on vacation. In the blog with the window cleaning tips she suggests cleaning them out with q-tips, but I just didn't have the patience for all that. So, instead, I carefully and slowly poured a small amount of vinegar along the entire length of both sides of the track and then used about a jillion paper towels to sop it up while wiping and swiping up all the gross dirt and gunk. I did the track when the door was closed, and then I opened it all the way and did the opposite side. It's amazing how much easier the door glides open and closed now! I had always assumed that those stains were there for good since they held on even after vacuuming, but they were definitely just stuck on dirt and with a ton of vinegar and little bit of elbow grease my window tracks are no longer embarrassing. I'll be sure to add that on my twice-yearly deep-cleaning list.

Ok, now that I bared my soul - and dirty tracks - I've got to get off the computer and get back to packing. Everything is done except for the suitcases being packed. Thankfully, it shouldn't take long since Vegas is still having hot summer temperatures and we're not wearing summer clothes here anymore so what I need to pack should be readily available. :)

I don't think I'll be posting while we're out of town, but I might surprise you!