Don't drink the Kool-Aid!

Clean your dishwasher with it! 

I spent most of Saturday "Fall Cleaning."There were a few things I just hadn't had time to in a long time or ever for that matter! 

Our dishwasher was looking pretty gunky and I finally decided I had to clean it and we were spending the day around the house watching football anyway. I googled and came up with some interesting ways to clean it! The first thing I found was to use Kool-Aid! Can you believe that? I have only ever drank Kool-Aid maybe a handful of times because that was never allowed at our house growing up. The amount of sugar is insane, so now I understand where my mom was coming from! But that aside, I trust Real Simple. They have yet to steer me wrong, so I figured I'd try this method. It seemed to work well. It definitely cleaned up a few areas and made the dishwasher smell fresh. It didn't smell badly before, but now it has a fresh lemon scent when I open it. 

Before I tried the Kool-Aid method, I spent 30 minutes scrubbing certain extra gunky areas with a toothbrush. I used baking soda and water paste that was ever so simple to make. I think that was a key factor in the cleaning process too. Then I removed the silverware baskets and the lid/wine glass holders (I don't know what these are called, but they came with the dishwasher and I use them to hold wine glasses upright and for sippy cup lids. I soaked those in a HOT water, baking soda and vinegar combo. It was random but seemed to work. I also scrubbed certain gunky areas of all 6 items as well. While those were soaking, I poured two cups of vinegar into the dishwasher and then I ran it on a antibacterial setting. Then right after that was finished, I started a regular dish load (empty) and used the Kool-Aid! I am amazed by this process and think the Kool-Aid will be a new monthly or bi-monthly procedure to keep everything clean and fresh! Happy Wednesday friends! If your dishwasher needs cleaning, try this method! :)

xoxo,

Ashley

Zucchini Lasagna

Hooray for the weekend! This has been a weekend full of catching up around the house, cleaning, baking, cooking and all being under the same roof at the same time which is a rare occasion unfortunately. It has been so nice and much needed. I made a delicious dinner Saturday night that I just had to tell you all about! Zucchini lasagna! It was delicious. Very time consuming with making the sauce, etc! I was reminded again why I can't seem to get dinners like this on the table during the week since my kiddos require most of my attention and my hubs is away. I don't think this would be great to make in advance mainly because of the watery factor of zucchini squash. Even after salting and grilling and blotting each piece, it is still very watery when/after cooking, so I am not sure this is a great make ahead meal. Though I am planning to attempt to freeze it, thaw and then bake it...but again it may be a problem with zucchini being a watery veggie. Will keep you posted! It was delicious and will definitely be in my meal rotation from now on (at least on the weekends!). I served a crusty sourdough bread with it and a simple lemony arugula salad with shaved parmesean. Really a light and yummy meal. Italian food can be light if you don't use actual pasta! This recipe is from one of my favorite meal websites Skinny Taste. This site has become a huge meal resource for me since I have been on this working out/watching what I eat regime. I love it and she uses a ton of zucchini which is one of my favorite veggies to cook and eat! She has amazing meals on there! Love it!

Another post to come on how I cleaned my dishwasher. I am fascinated by the method that I used!  It's the little things! :) Happy Sunday! I am off to spend some time with the fam and then off to celebrate a sweet friend's birthday with margs and shopping! 

xoxo,

Ashley

Busy Bees

Well, it's officially "fall." It's still 85 plus degrees here, with awful humidity, so I'm still thinking summer at this point. School started back last week, so we have been even more busy around here, as if that was even possible! This weekend was the first weekend in a long time that we had absolutely nothing going on. It was so nice to just sit and relax and enjoy each other. It came at a great time too because college football is here! Woohoo! While we relaxed a lot, I also worked quite a bit. I had taken a small break from taking orders...just needed some time off. I am now back in full swing and took this weekend as an opportunity to make some things for the little presidents. They get left in the dust a lot when I am swamped with orders, so I am trying to get a few things finished for them asap. :)

This sweet little shirt is for the little prez to wear when she watches the Texas Longhorns play. 

Hook 'em Horns! I love how it turned out. It will have a matching pair of shorts/pants, as soon as I get some more free time. :) Big brother has a shirt on the way as well!

This has been a LONG time coming. I have been wanting to make monogrammed wine/liquor totes for awhile now and again, I just haven't had time. These are the perfect host/hostess gift. A mongrammed tote filled with alcohol of some sort?! You can't go wrong! I have a feeling these are going to be a hot item!

Here is the finished product! This one has a leopard print pocket that you could add something special for the host...a wine stopper, bottle opener, etc! This turned out so cute. Seriously the perfect gift with a bottle of wine/liquor inside! I am so excited for the Christmas themed totes too. I have them all planned out! Expect lots of leopard, burlap and tartan plaid! :) There will most likely be a couple fall related totes as well! LOVE these!!!!!!

These pockets are so awesome!!! I am obsessed with them and thought adding a monogram was perfection.

I already have more of these in the works for my little guy. The possibilities are endless! He may only wear monogrammed pocket tees from now on! Ha! Loving this look! 

I plan to make myself a few tees too! :)

I was burning the midnight oil Saturday night working on all of this stuff, so Teddy was so excited and surprised when I showed him his shirt the next morning! 

He had to model it immediately. Love him.

Little miss R has been in desperate need of more bibs, so I hammered out a couple cute ones for her. Hoping to get a few more made this week. Teething is non-stop around here and the drool is insane...these bibs come in handy!

This is an order for place-mats and napkins. My son's school requires the kids to use place-mats each day for their lunch, so I make his and a friend ordered a set for her son. The picture is awful, but you get the idea. They turned out so cute. Random funny, Teddy said to me "oh, I really like the belly button fabric!" Belly button fabric being the polka dots! Haha! He is too funny!

Here are Teddy's sets. He picked the main fabrics and I picked coordinating fabric for the napkins. I actually need to make him one more so we have one for each day of school. As you can see, I haven't monogrammed Teddy's yet! At some point I will get to it! ;)

Pretty productive weekend here! Love that! Hope you all had a great weekend and have a happy Monday!

xoxo,

Ashley