2 Product Recommendations

2 product recommendations for you:

First, let me say that I am in no way affiliated with the companies that develop and market these products. I am strictly a happy consumer.

1. Shark Steam Blaster

I have tile floors in my kitchen. I love my tile floors. What I don't love is the Georgia Red Clay that sinks into your grout and never comes out. You can't get this out by mopping. It's just not going to happen. If you live in a place where you don't have red clay, let me know, I'll come live with you. Just count your blessings, trust me.

So I borrowed this steam blaster from my folks on the off chance that it might work.

I'm absolutely amazed at the difference. This are the same tiles in both the before and after shots.

Here's a couple of before shots:
Ick! The grout looks nasty

This just grossed me out. I wiped away the excess water caused by the steamer and look what happened to the towels. The one on the left was ivory. Blecch! What scares me is that I have mopped within the last couple of weeks. The thought of the baby playing in this filth just makes me sick. But! Look at the after pics.

Now here's what it looked like after just one pass over the grout and tile:

Wow, what a difference!

It needs to be done again as you can still see a little clay in the grout, but not today. My back is killing me now. I have a huge freakin' kitchen with breakfast nook and the tile is in there and then goes into the hallway and laundry room. It took me forever to go over all the grout in these rooms.

Gee, I guess I'll just have to go sit in my favorite chair and knit. Poor me.




2. Holloway House Quick Shine


This stuff is so fantastic. I thought that my hardwood floors had seen better days and were going to have to be completely sanded and redone. Nope. This stuff makes your hardwood and tile floors shine like crazy.

I used this after I finished up the kitchen. It looks so awesome now.


Now that I feel like I've done something productive, I think I'll go get that knitting done. Have a great weekend!

WIPs and FOs

I got some Finished Objects for you today!

First off, I finally blocked the Annie Modesitt Silk Corsett Top. This may be one of the nicest pieces of clothing that I own. Fits like a dream too. As long as I hold in my stomach. Note to self: Eat less, Exercise more.

I got a great deal on the buttons. Buttons are not cheap. There are twenty of them on this piece. I found some simple pearly buttons that were 6 for 90 cents at Joann's. The hubby thought this was outrageous until I told him the usual price for buttons, some of the cheaper being 3 or 4 to a pack that costs $3 or $4. He has absolutely no clue the cost of anything. Obviously he is not the one that does the shopping in the house, huh?

Here's the stats:

Pattern: Annie Modesitt Silk Corsett Top
Yarn: Bamboo by the Bag from DBNY (Discontinued Brand Name Yarn) in Cobalt
Needles: Sz 7
# of times frogged before success: 5
# yarn balls used: 1.5
Total Cost: Around $10.00 - Not bad, don't ya think?

Ubiquitous Bathroom Mirror Pic

Second up: Laburnum Socks from Sensational Knitted Socks w/ a picot edge. Probably won't do the picot edge again. I don't think I really like it. I do absolutely love the colors in this yarn though.



And here is the new WIP: The Clementine Shawlette from Interweave Knits Fall 2007. I'm using Lion Brand Micro Spun in White for this one. I take back what I said about acrylic yarns. They are not all bad and this one proves it. It glides on the needles like buttah and is so incredibly soft. I'm going to have to pick up some more of this and make a simple sweater out of it. Just for me, natch.

I'm a little further along than this now, but this was the pic I had.

No, it's not a tie, it really is going to be a shawl.

I'm new to chart reading. All the instructions that I am comfortable with are written out for me or are at least combined with charts. This is the first pattern that I have done that was chart only.

I had a really confusing moment on this that stalled all progress. For those who may have a similar problem:

There is a point where the pattern kind of stair-steps in for a decrease. I was stumped on what I needed to do. What I needed to do was nothing. This is called a "no-stitch" part of the pattern. I just needed to start the whole thing with the next stitch which was a knit. The decrease came in the middle of the row. I was used to seeing the decrease on the same row as the yarn overs. This row just leaves out the yo's and voila! the row takes care of itself. Thank you to the folks on Knitty who helped me out with this!

Need new WIPs

Can you believe it? I currently have absolutely nothing on the needles. For some unknown reason, both of my WIPs managed to get finished at the same time. I'm getting edgy already. My fingers need something to do.

So what did I do? I made the mistake of looking at the yarn sale board over at the Knitty Coffeeshop. I now have some yummy Colrain yarn coming my way to make the Minimalist Cardigan from Fall 2007 IK. The subtle color of the Grey/Olive yarn will be perfect for this cardi.

Here's the Grey/Olive yarn:

Minimalist Cardigan

AND I need a shawl for this one summer dress that I have. I bought the yarn for that on Monday.

So, now I need to get to work. I need to cast on and make my Dad some socks as well.

Duct tape can fix anything

Well, our luck (my hubby says there's no such thing as luck, but I think he' full of crap) turned for the better on the weekend. Eldest had a wonderful birthday weekend. There were presents, family, a moonwalk and fireworks galore and no major disasters (barring one incident with a face scratching cat, of course - Eldest was safe, youngest, not so much.)

I'm afraid the moonwalk was not all that we hoped for and once blown up was not like the picture that I posted previously. There were a gazillion small holes in it. The previous owner did not take good care of it. I need to buy a lot of official patch kits for it. But! There's a reason that my Dad says that duct tape can fix everything (he also says the same about kerosene, but that's another post.) I now present to you, The Official Redneck Moonwalk!

Check out that duct tape!

Eldest loved it anyway and had a wonderful time.

My dad took this wonderfully unflattering pic of me eating a celery stick.

My knitting totally sucked this weekend. I made the mistake of picking up an old ball of acrylic yarn to take and knit with while I was at my folks house. It made my hands ache so bad I pitched the whole thing. Note to self - ditch all synthetic yarn! Not only does it squeak when you knit with it, it doesn't glide on the needles. That's reason enough for me to become a yarn snob. Even if it does cost a few pennies more!

Free Breast Augmentations!

That's it. I'm moving to Australia and joining the military!
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22424066-2,00.html